Computer implemented methods and apparatus for identifying topical influence in an online social network

ABSTRACT

Disclosed are methods, apparatus, systems, and computer-readable storage media for identifying topical influence in an online social network. In some implementations, an entity associated with a feed item is identified. A topic associated with the entity or with the feed item is also identified. The entity can be determined to be a topical influencer regarding the topic in the online social network based on one or more factors, such as a factor indicating dissemination of information associated with the identified topic to other entities. A display device can be configured to display information indicating the determination that the entity is a topical influencer of the identified topic.

PRIORITY DATA

This patent document claims priority to and commonly assigned U.S.Provisional Patent Application No. 61/620,319, titled “System and Methodfor Identifying Topical Influence on an Online Social Network”, byPappas et al., filed on Apr. 4, 2012, which is hereby incorporated byreference in its entirety and for all purposes.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material,which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has noobjection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent documentor the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and TrademarkOffice patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrightrights whatsoever.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This patent document relates generally to providing on-demand servicesin an online social network using a database system and, morespecifically, to techniques for identifying topical influence in theonline social network.

BACKGROUND

“Cloud computing” services provide shared resources, software, andinformation to computers and other devices upon request. In cloudcomputing environments, software can be accessible over the Internetrather than installed locally on in-house computer systems. Cloudcomputing typically involves over-the-Internet provision of dynamicallyscalable and often virtualized resources. Technological details can beabstracted from the users, who no longer have need for expertise in, orcontrol over, the technology infrastructure “in the cloud” that supportsthem.

Database resources can be provided in a cloud computing context.However, using conventional database management techniques, it isdifficult to know about the activity of other users of a database systemin the cloud or other network. For example, the actions of a particularuser, such as a salesperson, on a database resource may be important tothe user's boss. The user can create a report about what the user hasdone and send it to the boss, but such reports may be inefficient, nottimely, and incomplete. Also, it may be difficult to identify otherusers who might benefit from the information in the report.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The included drawings are for illustrative purposes and serve only toprovide examples of possible structures and operations for the disclosedinventive systems, apparatus, methods and computer-readable storagemedia for identifying topical influence in an online social network.These drawings in no way limit any changes in form and detail that maybe made by one skilled in the art without departing from the spirit andscope of the disclosed implementations.

FIG. 1A shows a block diagram of an example of an environment 10 inwhich an on-demand database service can be used in accordance with someimplementations.

FIG. 1B shows a block diagram of an example of some implementations ofelements of FIG. 1A and various possible interconnections between theseelements.

FIG. 2A shows a system diagram illustrating an example of architecturalcomponents of an on-demand database service environment 200 according tosome implementations.

FIG. 2B shows a system diagram further illustrating an example ofarchitectural components of an on-demand database service environmentaccording to some implementations.

FIG. 3 shows a flowchart of an example of a method 300 for trackingupdates to a record stored in a database system, performed in accordancewith some implementations.

FIG. 4 shows a block diagram of an example of components of a databasesystem configuration 400 performing a method for tracking an update to arecord according to some implementations.

FIG. 5 shows a flowchart of an example of a method 500 for trackingactions of a user of a database system, performed in accordance withsome implementations.

FIG. 6 shows a flowchart of an example of a method 600 for creating anews feed from messages created by a user about a record or anotheruser, performed in accordance with some implementations.

FIG. 7 shows an example of a group feed on a group page according tosome implementations.

FIG. 8 shows an example of a record feed containing a feed trackedupdate, post, and comments according to some implementations.

FIG. 9A shows an example of a plurality of tables that may be used intracking events and creating feeds according to some implementations.

FIG. 9B shows a flowchart of an example of a method 900 forautomatically subscribing a user to an object in a database system,performed in accordance with some implementations.

FIG. 10 shows a flowchart of an example of a method 1000 for savinginformation to feed tracking tables, performed in accordance with someimplementations.

FIG. 11 shows a flowchart of an example of a method 1100 for reading afeed item as part of generating a feed for display, performed inaccordance with some implementations.

FIG. 12 shows a flowchart of an example of a method 1200 for reading afeed item of a profile feed for display, performed in accordance withsome implementations.

FIG. 13 shows a flowchart of an example of a method 1300 of storingevent information for efficient generation of feed items to display in afeed, performed in accordance with some implementations.

FIG. 14 shows a flowchart of an example of a method 1400 for creating acustom feed for users of a database system using filtering criteria,performed in accordance with some implementations.

FIG. 15 shows a flowchart of an example of a method 1500 for identifyinga topical influence in an online social network, performed in accordancewith some implementations.

FIG. 16 shows a flowchart of an example of a method 1600 for identifyinga topical influence in an online social network, performed in accordancewith some implementations.

FIGS. 17A and 17B show a flowchart of an example of a method 1700 fordetermining whether an entity is a topical influencer of an identifiedtopic based on one or more factors, performed in accordance with someimplementations.

FIG. 18 shows a flowchart of an example of a method 1800 for identifyinga topical influence in an online social network, performed in accordancewith some implementations.

FIG. 19 shows an example of a search page 1900 to search for entities inthe form of a graphical user interface (GUI) as displayed on a displaydevice, according to some implementations.

FIG. 20 shows an example of a search page 2000 to search for an entityor entities in the form of a GUI as displayed on a display device,according to some implementations.

FIG. 21 shows an example of a profile page 2100 in the form of a GUI asdisplayed on a display device, according to some implementations.

FIG. 22 shows an example of a search page 2200 to search for a topic ortopics in the form of a GUI as displayed on a display device, accordingto some implementations.

FIG. 23 shows an example of a topic profile page 2300 in the form of aGUI as displayed on a display device, according to some implementations.

FIG. 24 shows a topic catalogue page 2400 in the form of a GUI asdisplayed on a display device, according to some implementations.

FIG. 25 shows an example of a user profile page 2500 in the form of aGUI as displayed on a display device, according to some implementations

FIG. 26 shows an example of a peer endorsement pop-up window 2602 toallow a user to endorse another user as topical influencer in the formof a GUI as displayed on a display device, according to someimplementations.

FIGS. 27A and 27B show an example of a profile page 2700 in the form ofa GUI as displayed on a display device, according to someimplementations.

FIG. 28 shows an example of a group page 2800 in the form of a GUI asdisplayed on a display device, according to some implementations.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Examples of systems, apparatus, and methods according to the disclosedimplementations are described in this section. These examples are beingprovided solely to add context and aid in the understanding of thedisclosed implementations. It will thus be apparent to one skilled inthe art that implementations may be practiced without some or all ofthese specific details. In other instances, certain process/methodoperations, also referred to herein as “blocks,” have not been describedin detail in order to avoid unnecessarily obscuring implementations.Other applications are possible, such that the following examples shouldnot be taken as definitive or limiting either in scope or setting.

In the following detailed description, references are made to theaccompanying drawings, which form a part of the description and in whichare shown, by way of illustration, specific implementations. Althoughthese implementations are described in sufficient detail to enable oneskilled in the art to practice the disclosed implementations, it isunderstood that these examples are not limiting, such that otherimplementations may be used and changes may be made without departingfrom their spirit and scope. For example, the blocks of methods shownand described herein are not necessarily performed in the orderindicated. It should also be understood that the methods may includemore or fewer blocks than are indicated. In some implementations, blocksdescribed herein as separate blocks may be combined. Conversely, whatmay be described herein as a single block may be implemented in multipleblocks.

Various implementations described or referenced herein are directed todifferent methods, apparatus, systems, and computer-readable storagemedia for identifying topical influence in an online social network,also referred to herein as a social networking system. One example of anonline social network is Chatter®, provided by salesforce.com, inc. ofSan Francisco, Calif. Online social networks are increasingly becoming acommon way to facilitate communication among people and groups ofpeople, any of whom can be recognized as users of a social networkingsystem. Some online social networks can be implemented in varioussettings, including organizations, e.g., enterprises such as companiesor business partnerships, academic institutions, or groups within suchan organization. For instance, Chatter® can be used by employee users ina division of a business organization to share data, communicate, andcollaborate with each other for various purposes.

In some online social networks, users can access one or more informationfeeds, which include information updates presented as items or entriesin the feed. Such a feed item can include a single information update ora collection of individual information updates. A feed item can includevarious types of data including character-based data, audio data, imagedata and/or video data. An information feed can be displayed in agraphical user interface (GUI) on a display device such as the displayof a computing device as described below. The information updates caninclude various social network data from various sources and can bestored in an on-demand database service environment. In someimplementations, the disclosed methods, apparatus, systems, andcomputer-readable storage media may be configured or designed for use ina multi-tenant database environment.

In some implementations, an online social network may allow a user tofollow data objects in the form of records such as cases, accounts, oropportunities, in addition to following individual users and groups ofusers. The “following” of a record stored in a database, as described ingreater detail below, allows a user to track the progress of thatrecord. Updates to the record, also referred to herein as changes to therecord, are one type of information update that can occur and be notedon an information feed such as a record feed or a news feed of a usersubscribed to the record. Examples of record updates include fieldchanges in the record, updates to the status of a record, as well as thecreation of the record itself. Some records are publicly accessible,such that any user can follow the record, while other records areprivate, for which appropriate security clearance/permissions are aprerequisite to a user following the record.

Information updates can include various types of updates, which may ormay not be linked with a particular record. For example, informationupdates can be user-submitted messages or can otherwise be generated inresponse to user actions or in response to events. Examples of messagesinclude: posts, comments, indications of a user's personal preferencessuch as “likes” and “dislikes”, updates to a user's status, uploadedfiles, and hyperlinks to social network data or other network data suchas various documents and/or web pages on the Internet. Posts can includealpha-numeric or other character-based user inputs such as words,phrases, statements, questions, emotional expressions, and/or symbols.Comments generally refer to responses to posts, such as words, phrases,statements, answers, questions, and reactionary emotional expressionsand/or symbols. Multimedia data can be included in, linked with, orattached to a post or comment. For example, a post can include textualstatements in combination with a JPEG image or animated image. A like ordislike can be submitted in response to a particular post or comment.Examples of uploaded files include presentations, documents, multimediafiles, and the like.

Users can follow a record by subscribing to the record, as mentionedabove. Users can also follow other entities such as other types of dataobjects, other users, and groups of users. Feed tracked updatesregarding such entities are one type of information update that can bereceived and included in the user's news feed. Any number of users canfollow a particular entity and thus view information updates pertainingto that entity on the users' respective news feeds. In some socialnetworks, users may follow each other by establishing connections witheach other, sometimes referred to as “friending” one another. Byestablishing such a connection, one user may be able to see informationgenerated by, generated about, or otherwise associated with anotheruser. For instance, a first user may be able to see information postedby a second user to the second user's personal social network page. Oneimplementation of such a personal social network page is a user'sprofile page, for example, in the form of a web page representing theuser's profile. In one example, when the first user is following thesecond user, the first user's news feed can receive a post from thesecond user submitted to the second user's profile feed, also referredto herein as the user's “wall,” which is one example of an informationfeed displayed on the user's profile page.

In some implementations, an information feed may be specific to a groupof users of an online social network. For instance, a group of users maypublish a news feed. Members of the group may view and post to thisgroup feed in accordance with a permissions configuration for the feedand the group. Information updates in a group context can also includechanges to group status information.

In some implementations, when data such as posts or comments input fromone or more users are submitted to an information feed for a particularuser, group, object, or other construct within an online social network,an email notification or other type of network communication may betransmitted to all users following the user, group, or object inaddition to the inclusion of the data as a feed item in one or morefeeds, such as a user's profile feed, a news feed, or a record feed. Insome online social networks, the occurrence of such a notification islimited to the first instance of a published input, which may form partof a larger conversation. For instance, a notification may betransmitted for an initial post, but not for comments on the post. Insome other implementations, a separate notification is transmitted foreach such information update.

Some implementations of the disclosed systems, apparatus and methods areconfigured to identify topical influence in an online social network. Asnoted above, a social networking system is especially useful in acorporate or enterprise setting because the system allows users, such asemployees, to connect and exchange information with other employeesabout topics relevant to the enterprise. Some users who communicatespecialized knowledge about a topic and/or who are frequent postersregarding a topic can become “influencers” on the particular topic. Thatis, such users may shape or have an influence on other users' opinionsand actions regarding the topic. A user who communicates his thoughtsand opinions to others in the social networking system can become atopical influencer regardless of that user's job title, department, orlocation within the enterprise. Further, many organizations recognizethat informal connections that employees make with each other, forinstance, by joining groups and communicating with each other by postingto feeds, can contribute to enhancing the collective knowledge andexpertise about topics even outside of users' specific workresponsibilities.

However, as the number of users of an online social network grows, itbecomes increasingly difficult to identify and connect with users whohave the most knowledge about a particular topic. Especially in a largecorporation, this shortcoming creates certain inefficiencies, hindersproductivity, and ultimately may impact the bottom line. For example, anew employee of an organization may be seeking information about aparticular subject matter, but he may not know who in the organizationhas specialized knowledge about the subject matter. As a result, theemployee may spend hours or even days scrolling through onlinedirectories to attempt to identify other users who have relevant titlesand/or biographical information. The employee may also spend unnecessarytime and energy researching the particular subject matter. Manyconventional online social networks do not provide effective mechanismsto easily identify users or other entities that have topical influenceregarding a particular subject. Instead, users end up wasting valuabletime and unnecessarily duplicating efforts to research information abouta topic that another user may readily have available.

Some of the disclosed implementations provide techniques to identifytopical influence in an online social network. In some implementations,an entity such as a user is determined to be a topical influencer of atopic based on one or more factors. The factors can indicate the extentto which information contributed by the entity about a topic has beendisseminated to other entities in an online social network. Non-limitingexamples of factors can include: the number of times the entity includeskeywords associated with the topic in posts or other feed items, thenumber of times the entity has accessed or interacted with a topicprofile page, the number of times the entity has been recognized as anexpert or an authority regarding the topic, the number of times theentity is @mentioned in posts and comments, and other factors describedin greater detail below. Topical influence may be identified and updatedin real-time, for instance, in response to each new interaction by anentity in an online social network or according to some otherconfigurable frequency.

Various types of entities can be topical influencers in an online socialnetwork. Non-limiting examples of entity types include users, groups,organizations, records, feeds and other social networking constructs.Another type of entity, which can have topical influence, is anapplication executing on one or more servers or other computing devices.For example, an application hosted on a cloud application platform suchas Heroku® can be a topical influencer in one or more social networks.The various factors disclosed herein can be applied to determine topicalinfluence of such a hosted application. Other factors pertaining to ahosted application can also or alternatively be analyzed, such as anumber of users of the application, a number of times the applicationhas been installed, a number of times the application has been accessedby one or more devices, a number of client devices having accessed theapplication, an average session time of a user interacting with theapplication, a measure of processor time or computational resourcesdedicated to hosting the application, and various other measures ofusage of the application.

Factors can be weighted and compared to numerical thresholds todetermine a level of influence that the entity has on an identifiedtopic. For instance, the number of comments received on a post authoredby an entity may be associated with a greater weight than the number oflikes received on the post. In some implementations, factors can beweighted and further used in an algorithm to calculate an entity's levelof influence over a topic. The algorithm may be user-defined ordynamically determined by one or more computing devices based onpatterns and correlations among factors.

Some of the disclosed implementations provide mechanisms to identify anddisplay topical influence in a user interface (UI). For example, a usermay wish to know more about a particular technology or software and maywant to connect with other users that have topical influence regardingthe technology or software. With conventional systems, the user couldmanually search through a directory of users or topics. Then, the usercould read through each user's profile or topic profile page to searchfor keywords and specific skill sets. In conventional systems, a usermay have to rely on word-of-mouth recommendations to try to identify atopical influencer. Instead, using implementations of the disclosedtechniques, the user can perform a search, via a UI, on a topic. Whenmatches are identified based on the search query, a server can generatesearch results in the form of a list of topical influencers that may bepresented in the UI. This way, the user can easily connect and exchangeinformation with a topical influencer.

In some implementations, the levels of influence of different topicalinfluencers on an identified topic can be numerical and can be used tocontrol the presentation of the topical influencers in a UI. Forinstance, an entity with a 90% topical influence may be ranked higher ina list than another entity with 80% topical influence. In some otherinstances, the presentation of topical influencers in a UI may be basedon a type of entity. Based on whether the entity's level of influence iswithin a certain range of influence, the entity may be categorized as anobserver, an active influencer, or a top influencer. For example, anentity may be categorized as an observer if he merely comments and likesfeed items. An entity may be categorized as an active or top influencerbased on how much information the entity has contributed to a topic andhow that contributed information has been disseminated to other entitiesin an online social network. As such, in some implementations, onlyentities determined to be top influencers can be displayed in an UI. Inother implementations, entities may be displayed in a UI in an orderbased on the topical influencer type, such that top influencers appearat the top of the list and observers appear at the bottom of the list.

Some of the disclosed implementations provide mechanisms to generaterecommendations to a user based on actions performed by the user in anonline social network. For example, Rick, a salesman for a cardealership, may be closing a sale on a 2012 Volkswagen (VW) Passat at$22,000. In this scenario, the system described herein may generate alist of influencers on the sale of a VW Passat with whom Rick mayconnect and consult. In another scenario, the system described hereinmay identify the action of closing a sale on a VW Passat with a topinfluencer, Todd Lowe, and provide Rick with a recommendation of actionsto perform to close the sale in a similar manner as Todd closes sales.For example, the system may recommend that Rick consult with Tina Feybefore closing the sale, when Tina's input resulted in a $10,000increase in the sales price for Todd. In this way, the recommendationprovided by the system can help increase Rick's productivity and thebottom line for the car dealership.

As explained in greater detail below, some examples of systems andmethods described herein to identify topical influence in an onlinesocial network encourage users to create dynamic social networks thatallow knowledge seekers to more easily connect with knowledge bearers toincrease efficiency, productivity, and ultimately the bottom line of anorganization's business.

These and other implementations may be embodied in various types ofhardware, software, firmware, and combinations thereof. For example,some techniques disclosed herein may be implemented, at least in part,by computer-readable media that include program instructions, stateinformation, etc., for performing various services and operationsdescribed herein. Examples of program instructions include both machinecode, such as produced by a compiler, and files containing higher-levelcode that may be executed by a computing device such as a server orother data processing apparatus using an interpreter. Examples ofcomputer-readable media include, but are not limited to, magnetic mediasuch as hard disks, floppy disks, and magnetic tape; optical media suchas CD-ROM disks; magneto-optical media; and hardware devices that arespecially configured to store program instructions, such as read-onlymemory (“ROM”) devices and random access memory (“RAM”) devices. Theseand other features of the disclosed implementations will be described inmore detail below with reference to the associated drawings.

The term “multi-tenant database system” can refer to those systems inwhich various elements of hardware and software of a database system maybe shared by one or more customers. For example, a given applicationserver may simultaneously process requests for a great number ofcustomers, and a given database table may store rows of data such asfeed items for a potentially much greater number of customers. The term“query plan” generally refers to one or more operations used to accessinformation in a database system.

A “user profile” or “user's profile” is generally configured to storeand maintain data about a given user of the database system. The datacan include general information, such as name, title, phone number, aphoto, a biographical summary, and a status, e.g., text describing whatthe user is currently doing. As mentioned below, the data can includemessages created by other users. Where there are multiple tenants, auser is typically associated with a particular tenant. For example, auser could be a salesperson of a company, which is a tenant of thedatabase system that provides a database service.

The term “record” generally refers to a data entity, such as an instanceof a data object created by a user of the database service, for example,about a particular (actual or potential) business relationship orproject. The data object can have a data structure defined by thedatabase service (a standard object) or defined by a user (customobject). For example, a record can be for a business partner orpotential business partner (e.g., a client, vendor, distributor, etc.)of the user, and can include information describing an entire company,subsidiaries, or contacts at the company. As another example, a recordcan be a project that the user is working on, such as an opportunity(e.g., a possible sale) with an existing partner, or a project that theuser is trying to get. In one implementation of a multi-tenant databasesystem, each record for the tenants has a unique identifier stored in acommon table. A record has data fields that are defined by the structureof the object (e.g., fields of certain data types and purposes). Arecord can also have custom fields defined by a user. A field can beanother record or include links thereto, thereby providing aparent-child relationship between the records.

The terms “information feed” and “feed” are used interchangeably hereinand generally refer to a combination (e.g., a list) of feed items orentries with various types of information and data. Such feed items canbe stored and maintained in one or more database tables, e.g., as rowsin the table(s), that can be accessed to retrieve relevant informationto be presented as part of a displayed feed. The term “feed item” (orfeed element) refers to an item of information, which can be presentedin the feed such as a post submitted by a user. Feed items ofinformation about a user can be presented in a user's profile feed ofthe database, while feed items of information about a record can bepresented in a record feed in the database, by way of example. A profilefeed and a record feed are examples of different information feeds. Asecond user following a first user and a record can receive the feeditems associated with the first user and the record for display in thesecond user's news feed, which is another type of information feed. Insome implementations, the feed items from any number of followed usersand records can be combined into a single information feed of aparticular user.

As examples, a feed item can be a message, such as a user-generated postof text data, and a feed tracked update to a record or profile, such asa change to a field of the record. Feed tracked updates are described ingreater detail below. A feed can be a combination of messages and feedtracked updates. Messages include text created by a user, and mayinclude other data as well. Examples of messages include posts, userstatus updates, and comments. Messages can be created for a user'sprofile or for a record. Posts can be created by various users,potentially any user, although some restrictions can be applied. As anexample, posts can be made to a wall section of a user's profile page(which can include a number of recent posts) or a section of a recordthat includes multiple posts. The posts can be organized inchronological order when displayed in a graphical user interface (GUI),for instance, on the user's profile page, as part of the user's profilefeed. In contrast to a post, a user status update changes a status of auser and can be made by that user or an administrator. A record can alsohave a status, the update of which can be provided by an owner of therecord or other users having suitable write access permissions to therecord. The owner can be a single user, multiple users, or a group. Inone implementation, there is only one status for a record.

In some implementations, a comment can be made on any feed item. In someimplementations, comments are organized as a list explicitly tied to aparticular feed tracked update, post, or status update. In someimplementations, comments may not be listed in the first layer (in ahierarchal sense) of feed items, but listed as a second layer branchingfrom a particular first layer feed item.

A “feed tracked update,” also referred to herein as a “feed update,” isone type of information update and generally refers to data representingan event. A feed tracked update can include text generated by thedatabase system in response to the event, to be provided as one or morefeed items for possible inclusion in one or more feeds. In oneimplementation, the data can initially be stored, and then the databasesystem can later use the data to create text for describing the event.Both the data and/or the text can be a feed tracked update, as usedherein. In various implementations, an event can be an update of arecord and/or can be triggered by a specific action by a user. Whichactions trigger an event can be configurable. Which events have feedtracked updates created and which feed updates are sent to which userscan also be configurable. Messages and feed updates can be stored as afield or child object of the record. For example, the feed can be storedas a child object of the record.

A “group” is generally a collection of users. In some implementations,the group may be defined as users with a same or similar attribute, orby membership. In some implementations, a “group feed”, also referred toherein as a “group news feed”, includes one or more feed items about anyuser in the group. In some implementations, the group feed also includesinformation updates and other feed items that are about the group as awhole, the group's purpose, the group's description, and group recordsand other objects stored in association with the group. Threads ofinformation updates including group record updates and messages, such asposts, comments, likes, etc., can define group conversations and changeover time.

An “entity feed” or “record feed” generally refers to a feed of feeditems about a particular record in the database, such as feed trackedupdates about changes to the record and posts made by users about therecord. An entity feed can be composed of any type of feed item. Such afeed can be displayed on a page such as a web page associated with therecord, e.g., a home page of the record. As used herein, a “profilefeed” or “user's profile feed” is a feed of feed items about aparticular user. In one example, the feed items for a profile feedinclude posts and comments that other users make about or send to theparticular user, and status updates made by the particular user. Such aprofile feed can be displayed on a page associated with the particularuser. In another example, feed items in a profile feed could includeposts made by the particular user and feed tracked updates initiatedbased on actions of the particular user.

I. General Overview

Systems, apparatus, and methods are provided for implementing enterpriselevel social and business information networking. Such implementationscan provide more efficient use of a database system. For instance, auser of a database system may not easily know when important informationin the database has changed, e.g., about a project or client.Implementations can provide feed tracked updates about such changes andother events, thereby keeping users informed.

By way of example, a user can update a record, e.g., an opportunity suchas a possible sale of 1000 computers. Once the record update has beenmade, a feed tracked update about the record update can thenautomatically be provided, e.g., in a feed, to anyone subscribing to theopportunity or to the user. Thus, the user does not need to contact amanager regarding the change in the opportunity, since the feed trackedupdate about the update is sent via a feed right to the manager's feedpage or other page.

Next, mechanisms and methods for providing systems implementingenterprise level social and business information networking will bedescribed with reference to several implementations. First, an overviewof an example of a database system is described, and then examples oftracking events for a record, actions of a user, and messages about auser or record are described. Various implementations about the datastructure of feeds, customizing feeds, user selection of records andusers to follow, generating feeds, and displaying feeds are alsodescribed.

II. System Overview

FIG. 1A shows a block diagram of an example of an environment 10 inwhich an on-demand database service can be used in accordance with someimplementations. Environment 10 may include user systems 12, network 14,database system 16, processor system 17, application platform 18,network interface 20, tenant data storage 22, system data storage 24,program code 26, and process space 28. In other implementations,environment 10 may not have all of these components and/or may haveother components instead of, or in addition to, those listed above.

Environment 10 is an environment in which an on-demand database serviceexists. User system 12 may be implemented as any computing device(s) orother data processing apparatus such as a machine or system that is usedby a user to access a database system 16. For example, any of usersystems 12 can be a handheld computing device, a mobile phone, a laptopcomputer, a work station, and/or a network of such computing devices. Asillustrated in FIG. 1A (and in more detail in FIG. 1B) user systems 12might interact via a network 14 with an on-demand database service,which is implemented in the example of FIG. 1A as database system 16.

An on-demand database service, implemented using system 16 by way ofexample, is a service that is made available to outside users, who donot need to necessarily be concerned with building and/or maintainingthe database system. Instead, the database system may be available fortheir use when the users need the database system, i.e., on the demandof the users. Some on-demand database services may store informationfrom one or more tenants into tables of a common database image to forma multi-tenant database system (MTS). A database image may include oneor more database objects. A relational database management system(RDBMS) or the equivalent may execute storage and retrieval ofinformation against the database object(s). Application platform 18 maybe a framework that allows the applications of system 16 to run, such asthe hardware and/or software, e.g., the operating system. In someimplementations, application platform 18 enables creation, managing andexecuting one or more applications developed by the provider of theon-demand database service, users accessing the on-demand databaseservice via user systems 12, or third party application developersaccessing the on-demand database service via user systems 12.

The users of user systems 12 may differ in their respective capacities,and the capacity of a particular user system 12 might be entirelydetermined by permissions (permission levels) for the current user. Forexample, where a salesperson is using a particular user system 12 tointeract with system 16, that user system has the capacities allotted tothat salesperson. However, while an administrator is using that usersystem to interact with system 16, that user system has the capacitiesallotted to that administrator. In systems with a hierarchical rolemodel, users at one permission level may have access to applications,data, and database information accessible by a lower permission leveluser, but may not have access to certain applications, databaseinformation, and data accessible by a user at a higher permission level.Thus, different users will have different capabilities with regard toaccessing and modifying application and database information, dependingon a user's security or permission level, also called authorization.

Network 14 is any network or combination of networks of devices thatcommunicate with one another. For example, network 14 can be any one orany combination of a LAN (local area network), WAN (wide area network),telephone network, wireless network, point-to-point network, starnetwork, token ring network, hub network, or other appropriateconfiguration. Network 14 can include a TCP/IP (Transfer ControlProtocol and Internet Protocol) network, such as the global internetworkof networks often referred to as the “Internet” with a capital “I.” TheInternet will be used in many of the examples herein. However, it shouldbe understood that the networks that the present implementations mightuse are not so limited, although TCP/IP is a frequently implementedprotocol.

User systems 12 might communicate with system 16 using TCP/IP and, at ahigher network level, use other common Internet protocols tocommunicate, such as HTTP, FTP, AFS, WAP, etc. In an example where HTTPis used, user system 12 might include an HTTP client commonly referredto as a “browser” for sending and receiving HTTP signals to and from anHTTP server at system 16. Such an HTTP server might be implemented asthe sole network interface 20 between system 16 and network 14, butother techniques might be used as well or instead. In someimplementations, the network interface 20 between system 16 and network14 includes load sharing functionality, such as round-robin HTTP requestdistributors to balance loads and distribute incoming HTTP requestsevenly over a plurality of servers. At least for users accessing system16, each of the plurality of servers has access to the MTS' data;however, other alternative configurations may be used instead.

In one implementation, system 16, shown in FIG. 1A, implements aweb-based customer relationship management (CRM) system. For example, inone implementation, system 16 includes application servers configured toimplement and execute CRM software applications as well as providerelated data, code, forms, web pages and other information to and fromuser systems 12 and to store to, and retrieve from, a database systemrelated data, objects, and Webpage content. With a multi-tenant system,data for multiple tenants may be stored in the same physical databaseobject in tenant data storage 22, however, tenant data typically isarranged in the storage medium(s) of tenant data storage 22 so that dataof one tenant is kept logically separate from that of other tenants sothat one tenant does not have access to another tenant's data, unlesssuch data is expressly shared. In certain implementations, system 16implements applications other than, or in addition to, a CRMapplication. For example, system 16 may provide tenant access tomultiple hosted (standard and custom) applications, including a CRMapplication. User (or third party developer) applications, which may ormay not include CRM, may be supported by the application platform 18,which manages creation, storage of the applications into one or moredatabase objects and executing of the applications in a virtual machinein the process space of the system 16.

One arrangement for elements of system 16 is shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B,including a network interface 20, application platform 18, tenant datastorage 22 for tenant data 23, system data storage 24 for system data 25accessible to system 16 and possibly multiple tenants, program code 26for implementing various functions of system 16, and a process space 28for executing MTS system processes and tenant-specific processes, suchas running applications as part of an application hosting service.Additional processes that may execute on system 16 include databaseindexing processes.

Several elements in the system shown in FIG. 1A include conventional,well-known elements that are explained only briefly here. For example,each user system 12 could include a desktop personal computer,workstation, laptop, PDA, cell phone, or any wireless access protocol(WAP) enabled device or any other computing device capable ofinterfacing directly or indirectly to the Internet or other networkconnection. The term “computing device” is also referred to hereinsimply as a “computer”. User system 12 typically runs an HTTP client,e.g., a browsing program, such as Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser,Netscape's Navigator browser, Opera's browser, or a WAP-enabled browserin the case of a cell phone, PDA or other wireless device, or the like,allowing a user (e.g., subscriber of the multi-tenant database system)of user system 12 to access, process and view information, pages andapplications available to it from system 16 over network 14. Each usersystem 12 also typically includes one or more user input devices, suchas a keyboard, a mouse, trackball, touch pad, touch screen, pen or thelike, for interacting with a graphical user interface (GUI) provided bythe browser on a display (e.g., a monitor screen, LCD display, etc.) ofthe computing device in conjunction with pages, forms, applications andother information provided by system 16 or other systems or servers. Forexample, the user interface device can be used to access data andapplications hosted by system 16, and to perform searches on storeddata, and otherwise allow a user to interact with various GUI pages thatmay be presented to a user. As discussed above, implementations aresuitable for use with the Internet, although other networks can be usedinstead of or in addition to the Internet, such as an intranet, anextranet, a virtual private network (VPN), a non-TCP/IP based network,any LAN or WAN or the like.

According to one implementation, each user system 12 and all of itscomponents are operator configurable using applications, such as abrowser, including computer code run using a central processing unitsuch as an Intel Pentium® processor or the like. Similarly, system 16(and additional instances of an MTS, where more than one is present) andall of its components might be operator configurable usingapplication(s) including computer code to run using processor system 17,which may be implemented to include a central processing unit, which mayinclude an Intel Pentium® processor or the like, and/or multipleprocessor units. Non-transitory computer-readable media can haveinstructions stored thereon/in, that can be executed by or used toprogram a computing device to perform any of the methods of theimplementations described herein. Computer program code 26 implementinginstructions for operating and configuring system 16 to intercommunicateand to process web pages, applications and other data and media contentas described herein is preferably downloadable and stored on a harddisk, but the entire program code, or portions thereof, may also bestored in any other volatile or non-volatile memory medium or device asis well known, such as a ROM or RAM, or provided on any media capable ofstoring program code, such as any type of rotating media includingfloppy disks, optical discs, digital versatile disk (DVD), compact disk(CD), microdrive, and magneto-optical disks, and magnetic or opticalcards, nanosystems (including molecular memory ICs), or any other typeof computer-readable medium or device suitable for storing instructionsand/or data. Additionally, the entire program code, or portions thereof,may be transmitted and downloaded from a software source over atransmission medium, e.g., over the Internet, or from another server, asis well known, or transmitted over any other conventional networkconnection as is well known (e.g., extranet, VPN, LAN, etc.) using anycommunication medium and protocols (e.g., TCP/IP, HTTP, HTTPS, Ethernet,etc.) as are well known. It will also be appreciated that computer codefor the disclosed implementations can be realized in any programminglanguage that can be executed on a client system and/or server or serversystem such as, for example, C, C++, HTML, any other markup language,Java™, JavaScript, ActiveX, any other scripting language, such asVBScript, and many other programming languages as are well known may beused. (Java™ is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc.).

According to some implementations, each system 16 is configured toprovide web pages, forms, applications, data and media content to user(client) systems 12 to support the access by user systems 12 as tenantsof system 16. As such, system 16 provides security mechanisms to keepeach tenant's data separate unless the data is shared. If more than oneMTS is used, they may be located in close proximity to one another(e.g., in a server farm located in a single building or campus), or theymay be distributed at locations remote from one another (e.g., one ormore servers located in city A and one or more servers located in cityB). As used herein, each MTS could include one or more logically and/orphysically connected servers distributed locally or across one or moregeographic locations. Additionally, the term “server” is meant to referto a computing device or system, including processing hardware andprocess space(s), an associated storage medium such as a memory deviceor database, and, in some instances, a database application (e.g.,OODBMS or RDBMS) as is well known in the art. It should also beunderstood that “server system” and “server” are often usedinterchangeably herein. Similarly, the database objects described hereincan be implemented as single databases, a distributed database, acollection of distributed databases, a database with redundant online oroffline backups or other redundancies, etc., and might include adistributed database or storage network and associated processingintelligence.

FIG. 1B shows a block diagram of an example of some implementations ofelements of FIG. 1A and various possible interconnections between theseelements. That is, FIG. 1B also illustrates environment 10. However, inFIG. 1B elements of system 16 and various interconnections in someimplementations are further illustrated. FIG. 1B shows that user system12 may include processor system 12A, memory system 12B, input system12C, and output system 12D. FIG. 1B shows network 14 and system 16. FIG.1B also shows that system 16 may include tenant data storage 22, tenantdata 23, system data storage 24, system data 25, User Interface (UI) 30,Application Program Interface (API) 32, PL/SOQL 34, save routines 36,application setup mechanism 38, applications servers 1001-100N, systemprocess space 102, tenant process spaces 104, tenant management processspace 110, tenant storage space 112, user storage 114, and applicationmetadata 116. In other implementations, environment 10 may not have thesame elements as those listed above and/or may have other elementsinstead of, or in addition to, those listed above.

User system 12, network 14, system 16, tenant data storage 22, andsystem data storage 24 were discussed above in FIG. 1A. Regarding usersystem 12, processor system 12A may be any combination of one or moreprocessors. Memory system 12B may be any combination of one or morememory devices, short term, and/or long term memory. Input system 12Cmay be any combination of input devices, such as one or more keyboards,mice, trackballs, scanners, cameras, and/or interfaces to networks.Output system 12D may be any combination of output devices, such as oneor more monitors, printers, and/or interfaces to networks. As shown byFIG. 1B, system 16 may include a network interface 20 (of FIG. 1A)implemented as a set of HTTP application servers 100, an applicationplatform 18, tenant data storage 22, and system data storage 24. Alsoshown is system process space 102, including individual tenant processspaces 104 and a tenant management process space 110. Each applicationserver 100 may be configured to communicate with tenant data storage 22and the tenant data 23 therein, and system data storage 24 and thesystem data 25 therein to serve requests of user systems 12. The tenantdata 23 might be divided into individual tenant storage spaces 112,which can be either a physical arrangement and/or a logical arrangementof data. Within each tenant storage space 112, user storage 114 andapplication metadata 116 might be similarly allocated for each user. Forexample, a copy of a user's most recently used (MRU) items might bestored to user storage 114. Similarly, a copy of MRU items for an entireorganization that is a tenant might be stored to tenant storage space112. A UI 30 provides a user interface and an API 32 provides anapplication programmer interface to system 16 resident processes tousers and/or developers at user systems 12. The tenant data and thesystem data may be stored in various databases, such as one or moreOracle databases.

Application platform 18 includes an application setup mechanism 38 thatsupports application developers' creation and management ofapplications, which may be saved as metadata into tenant data storage 22by save routines 36 for execution by subscribers as one or more tenantprocess spaces 104 managed by tenant management process 110 for example.Invocations to such applications may be coded using PL/SOQL 34 thatprovides a programming language style interface extension to API 32. Adetailed description of some PL/SOQL language implementations isdiscussed in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 7,730,478, titled METHODAND SYSTEM FOR ALLOWING ACCESS TO DEVELOPED APPLICATIONS VIA AMULTI-TENANT ON-DEMAND DATABASE SERVICE, by Craig Weissman, issued onJun. 1, 2010, and hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety andfor all purposes. Invocations to applications may be detected by one ormore system processes, which manage retrieving application metadata 116for the subscriber making the invocation and executing the metadata asan application in a virtual machine.

Each application server 100 may be communicably coupled to databasesystems, e.g., having access to system data 25 and tenant data 23, via adifferent network connection. For example, one application server 1001might be coupled via the network 14 (e.g., the Internet), anotherapplication server 100N-1 might be coupled via a direct network link,and another application server 100N might be coupled by yet a differentnetwork connection. Transfer Control Protocol and Internet Protocol(TCP/IP) are typical protocols for communicating between applicationservers 100 and the database system. However, it will be apparent to oneskilled in the art that other transport protocols may be used tooptimize the system depending on the network interconnect used.

In certain implementations, each application server 100 is configured tohandle requests for any user associated with any organization that is atenant. Because it is desirable to be able to add and remove applicationservers from the server pool at any time for any reason, there ispreferably no server affinity for a user and/or organization to aspecific application server 100. In one implementation, therefore, aninterface system implementing a load balancing function (e.g., an F5Big-IP load balancer) is communicably coupled between the applicationservers 100 and the user systems 12 to distribute requests to theapplication servers 100. In one implementation, the load balancer uses aleast connections algorithm to route user requests to the applicationservers 100. Other examples of load balancing algorithms, such as roundrobin and observed response time, also can be used. For example, incertain implementations, three consecutive requests from the same usercould hit three different application servers 100, and three requestsfrom different users could hit the same application server 100. In thismanner, by way of example, system 16 is multi-tenant, wherein system 16handles storage of, and access to, different objects, data andapplications across disparate users and organizations.

As an example of storage, one tenant might be a company that employs asales force where each salesperson uses system 16 to manage their salesprocess. Thus, a user might maintain contact data, leads data, customerfollow-up data, performance data, goals and progress data, etc., allapplicable to that user's personal sales process (e.g., in tenant datastorage 22). In an example of a MTS arrangement, since all of the dataand the applications to access, view, modify, report, transmit,calculate, etc., can be maintained and accessed by a user system havingnothing more than network access, the user can manage his or her salesefforts and cycles from any of many different user systems. For example,if a salesperson is visiting a customer and the customer has Internetaccess in their lobby, the salesperson can obtain critical updates as tothat customer while waiting for the customer to arrive in the lobby.

While each user's data might be separate from other users' dataregardless of the employers of each user, some data might beorganization-wide data shared or accessible by a plurality of users orall of the users for a given organization that is a tenant. Thus, theremight be some data structures managed by system 16 that are allocated atthe tenant level while other data structures might be managed at theuser level. Because an MTS might support multiple tenants includingpossible competitors, the MTS should have security protocols that keepdata, applications, and application use separate. Also, because manytenants may opt for access to an MTS rather than maintain their ownsystem, redundancy, up-time, and backup are additional functions thatmay be implemented in the MTS. In addition to user-specific data andtenant-specific data, system 16 might also maintain system level datausable by multiple tenants or other data. Such system level data mightinclude industry reports, news, postings, and the like that are sharableamong tenants.

In certain implementations, user systems 12 (which may be clientsystems) communicate with application servers 100 to request and updatesystem-level and tenant-level data from system 16 that may involvesending one or more queries to tenant data storage 22 and/or system datastorage 24. System 16 (e.g., an application server 100 in system 16)automatically generates one or more SQL statements (e.g., one or moreSQL queries) that are designed to access the desired information. Systemdata storage 24 may generate query plans to access the requested datafrom the database.

Each database can generally be viewed as a collection of objects, suchas a set of logical tables, containing data fitted into predefinedcategories. A “table” is one representation of a data object, and may beused herein to simplify the conceptual description of objects and customobjects according to some implementations. It should be understood that“table” and “object” may be used interchangeably herein. Each tablegenerally contains one or more data categories logically arranged ascolumns or fields in a viewable schema. Each row or record of a tablecontains an instance of data for each category defined by the fields.For example, a CRM database may include a table that describes acustomer with fields for basic contact information such as name,address, phone number, fax number, etc. Another table might describe apurchase order, including fields for information such as customer,product, sale price, date, etc. In some multi-tenant database systems,standard entity tables might be provided for use by all tenants. For CRMdatabase applications, such standard entities might include tables forcase, account, contact, lead, and opportunity data objects, eachcontaining pre-defined fields. It should be understood that the word“entity” may also be used interchangeably herein with “object” and“table”.

In some multi-tenant database systems, tenants may be allowed to createand store custom objects, or they may be allowed to customize standardentities or objects, for example by creating custom fields for standardobjects, including custom index fields. Commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No.7,779,039, titled CUSTOM ENTITIES AND FIELDS IN A MULTI-TENANT DATABASESYSTEM, by Weissman et al., issued on Aug. 17, 2010, and herebyincorporated by reference in its entirety and for all purposes, teachessystems and methods for creating custom objects as well as customizingstandard objects in a multi-tenant database system. In certainimplementations, for example, all custom entity data rows are stored ina single multi-tenant physical table, which may contain multiple logicaltables per organization. It is transparent to customers that theirmultiple “tables” are in fact stored in one large table or that theirdata may be stored in the same table as the data of other customers.

FIG. 2A shows a system diagram illustrating an example of architecturalcomponents of an on-demand database service environment 200 according tosome implementations. A client machine located in the cloud 204,generally referring to one or more networks in combination, as describedherein, may communicate with the on-demand database service environmentvia one or more edge routers 208 and 212. A client machine can be any ofthe examples of user systems 12 described above. The edge routers maycommunicate with one or more core switches 220 and 224 via firewall 216.The core switches may communicate with a load balancer 228, which maydistribute server load over different pods, such as the pods 240 and244. The pods 240 and 244, which may each include one or more serversand/or other computing resources, may perform data processing and otheroperations used to provide on-demand services. Communication with thepods may be conducted via pod switches 232 and 236. Components of theon-demand database service environment may communicate with a databasestorage 256 via a database firewall 248 and a database switch 252.

As shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B, accessing an on-demand database serviceenvironment may involve communications transmitted among a variety ofdifferent hardware and/or software components. Further, the on-demanddatabase service environment 200 is a simplified representation of anactual on-demand database service environment. For example, while onlyone or two devices of each type are shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B, someimplementations of an on-demand database service environment may includeanywhere from one to many devices of each type. Also, the on-demanddatabase service environment need not include each device shown in FIGS.2A and 2B, or may include additional devices not shown in FIGS. 2A and2B.

Moreover, one or more of the devices in the on-demand database serviceenvironment 200 may be implemented on the same physical device or ondifferent hardware. Some devices may be implemented using hardware or acombination of hardware and software. Thus, terms such as “dataprocessing apparatus,” “machine,” “server” and “device” as used hereinare not limited to a single hardware device, but rather include anyhardware and software configured to provide the described functionality.

The cloud 204 is intended to refer to a data network or plurality ofdata networks, often including the Internet. Client machines located inthe cloud 204 may communicate with the on-demand database serviceenvironment to access services provided by the on-demand databaseservice environment. For example, client machines may access theon-demand database service environment to retrieve, store, edit, and/orprocess information.

In some implementations, the edge routers 208 and 212 route packetsbetween the cloud 204 and other components of the on-demand databaseservice environment 200. The edge routers 208 and 212 may employ theBorder Gateway Protocol (BGP). The BGP is the core routing protocol ofthe Internet. The edge routers 208 and 212 may maintain a table of IPnetworks or ‘prefixes’, which designate network reachability amongautonomous systems on the Internet.

In one or more implementations, the firewall 216 may protect the innercomponents of the on-demand database service environment 200 fromInternet traffic. The firewall 216 may block, permit, or deny access tothe inner components of the on-demand database service environment 200based upon a set of rules and other criteria. The firewall 216 may actas one or more of a packet filter, an application gateway, a statefulfilter, a proxy server, or any other type of firewall.

In some implementations, the core switches 220 and 224 are high-capacityswitches that transfer packets within the on-demand database serviceenvironment 200. The core switches 220 and 224 may be configured asnetwork bridges that quickly route data between different componentswithin the on-demand database service environment. In someimplementations, the use of two or more core switches 220 and 224 mayprovide redundancy and/or reduced latency.

In some implementations, the pods 240 and 244 may perform the core dataprocessing and service functions provided by the on-demand databaseservice environment. Each pod may include various types of hardwareand/or software computing resources. An example of the pod architectureis discussed in greater detail with reference to FIG. 2B.

In some implementations, communication between the pods 240 and 244 maybe conducted via the pod switches 232 and 236. The pod switches 232 and236 may facilitate communication between the pods 240 and 244 and clientmachines located in the cloud 204, for example via core switches 220 and224. Also, the pod switches 232 and 236 may facilitate communicationbetween the pods 240 and 244 and the database storage 256.

In some implementations, the load balancer 228 may distribute workloadbetween the pods 240 and 244. Balancing the on-demand service requestsbetween the pods may assist in improving the use of resources,increasing throughput, reducing response times, and/or reducingoverhead. The load balancer 228 may include multilayer switches toanalyze and forward traffic.

In some implementations, access to the database storage 256 may beguarded by a database firewall 248. The database firewall 248 may act asa computer application firewall operating at the database applicationlayer of a protocol stack. The database firewall 248 may protect thedatabase storage 256 from application attacks such as structure querylanguage (SQL) injection, database rootkits, and unauthorizedinformation disclosure.

In some implementations, the database firewall 248 may include a hostusing one or more forms of reverse proxy services to proxy trafficbefore passing it to a gateway router. The database firewall 248 mayinspect the contents of database traffic and block certain content ordatabase requests. The database firewall 248 may work on the SQLapplication level atop the TCP/IP stack, managing applications'connection to the database or SQL management interfaces as well asintercepting and enforcing packets traveling to or from a databasenetwork or application interface.

In some implementations, communication with the database storage 256 maybe conducted via the database switch 252. The multi-tenant databasestorage 256 may include more than one hardware and/or softwarecomponents for handling database queries. Accordingly, the databaseswitch 252 may direct database queries transmitted by other componentsof the on-demand database service environment (e.g., the pods 240 and244) to the correct components within the database storage 256.

In some implementations, the database storage 256 is an on-demanddatabase system shared by many different organizations. The on-demanddatabase system may employ a multi-tenant approach, a virtualizedapproach, or any other type of database approach. An on-demand databasesystem is discussed in greater detail with reference to FIGS. 1A and 1B.

FIG. 2B shows a system diagram further illustrating an example ofarchitectural components of an on-demand database service environmentaccording to some implementations. The pod 244 may be used to renderservices to a user of the on-demand database service environment 200. Insome implementations, each pod may include a variety of servers and/orother systems. The pod 244 includes one or more content batch servers264, content search servers 268, query servers 282, file force servers286, access control system (ACS) servers 280, batch servers 284, and appservers 288. Also, the pod 244 includes database instances 290, quickfile systems (QFS) 292, and indexers 294. In one or moreimplementations, some or all communication between the servers in thepod 244 may be transmitted via the switch 236.

In some implementations, the app servers 288 may include a hardwareand/or software framework dedicated to the execution of procedures(e.g., programs, routines, scripts) for supporting the construction ofapplications provided by the on-demand database service environment 200via the pod 244. In some implementations, the hardware and/or softwareframework of an app server 288 is configured to execute operations ofthe services described herein, including performance of the blocks ofmethods described with reference to FIGS. 15-28. In alternativeimplementations, two or more app servers 288 may be included andcooperate to perform such methods, or one or more other serversdescribed herein can be configured to perform the disclosed methods.

The content batch servers 264 may handle requests internal to the pod.These requests may be long-running and/or not tied to a particularcustomer. For example, the content batch servers 264 may handle requestsrelated to log mining, cleanup work, and maintenance tasks.

The content search servers 268 may provide query and indexer functions.For example, the functions provided by the content search servers 268may allow users to search through content stored in the on-demanddatabase service environment.

The file force servers 286 may manage requests for information stored inthe Fileforce storage 298. The Fileforce storage 298 may storeinformation such as documents, images, and basic large objects (BLOBs).By managing requests for information using the file force servers 286,the image footprint on the database may be reduced.

The query servers 282 may be used to retrieve information from one ormore file systems. For example, the query system 282 may receiverequests for information from the app servers 288 and then transmitinformation queries to the NFS 296 located outside the pod.

The pod 244 may share a database instance 290 configured as amulti-tenant environment in which different organizations share accessto the same database. Additionally, services rendered by the pod 244 maycall upon various hardware and/or software resources. In someimplementations, the ACS servers 280 may control access to data,hardware resources, or software resources.

In some implementations, the batch servers 284 may process batch jobs,which are used to run tasks at specified times. Thus, the batch servers284 may transmit instructions to other servers, such as the app servers288, to trigger the batch jobs.

In some implementations, the QFS 292 may be an open source file systemavailable from Sun Microsystems® of Santa Clara, Calif. The QFS mayserve as a rapid-access file system for storing and accessinginformation available within the pod 244. The QFS 292 may support somevolume management capabilities, allowing many disks to be groupedtogether into a file system. File system metadata can be kept on aseparate set of disks, which may be useful for streaming applicationswhere long disk seeks cannot be tolerated. Thus, the QFS system maycommunicate with one or more content search servers 268 and/or indexers294 to identify, retrieve, move, and/or update data stored in thenetwork file systems 296 and/or other storage systems.

In some implementations, one or more query servers 282 may communicatewith the NFS 296 to retrieve and/or update information stored outside ofthe pod 244. The NFS 296 may allow servers located in the pod 244 toaccess information to access files over a network in a manner similar tohow local storage is accessed.

In some implementations, queries from the query servers 222 may betransmitted to the NFS 296 via the load balancer 228, which maydistribute resource requests over various resources available in theon-demand database service environment. The NFS 296 may also communicatewith the QFS 292 to update the information stored on the NFS 296 and/orto provide information to the QFS 292 for use by servers located withinthe pod 244.

In some implementations, the pod may include one or more databaseinstances 290. The database instance 290 may transmit information to theQFS 292. When information is transmitted to the QFS, it may be availablefor use by servers within the pod 244 without using an additionaldatabase call.

In some implementations, database information may be transmitted to theindexer 294. Indexer 294 may provide an index of information availablein the database 290 and/or QFS 292. The index information may beprovided to file force servers 286 and/or the QFS 292.

III. Tracking Updates to a Record Stored in a Database

As multiple users might be able to change the data of a record, it canbe useful for certain users to be notified when a record is updated.Also, even if a user does not have authority to change a record, theuser still might want to know when there is an update to the record. Forexample, a vendor may negotiate a new price with a salesperson ofcompany X, where the salesperson is a user associated with tenant Y. Aspart of creating a new invoice or for accounting purposes, thesalesperson can change the price saved in the database. It may beimportant for co-workers to know that the price has changed. Thesalesperson could send an email to certain people, but this is onerousand the salesperson might not email all of the people who need to knowor want to know. Accordingly, some implementations of the disclosedtechniques can inform others (e.g., co-workers) who want to know aboutan update to a record automatically.

FIG. 3 shows a flowchart of an example of a method 300 for trackingupdates to a record stored in a database system, performed in accordancewith some implementations. Method 300 (and other methods describedherein) may be implemented at least partially with multi-tenant databasesystem 16, e.g., by one or more processors configured to receive orretrieve information, process the information, store results, andtransmit the results. In other implementations, method 300 may beimplemented at least partially with a single tenant database system. Invarious implementations, blocks may be omitted, combined, or split intoadditional blocks for method 300, as well as for other methods describedherein.

In block 310, the database system receives a request to update a firstrecord. In one implementation, the request is received from a firstuser. For example, a user may be accessing a page associated with thefirst record, and may change a displayed field and hit save. In anotherimplementation, the database system can automatically create therequest. For instance, the database system can create the request inresponse to another event, e.g., a request to change a field could besent periodically at a particular date and/or time of day, or a changeto another field or object. The database system can obtain a new valuebased on other fields of a record and/or based on parameters in thesystem.

The request for the update of a field of a record is an example of anevent associated with the first record for which a feed tracked updatemay be created. In other implementations, the database system canidentify other events besides updates to fields of a record. Forexample, an event can be a submission of approval to change a field.Such an event can also have an associated field (e.g., a field showing astatus of whether a change has been submitted). Other examples of eventscan include creation of a record, deletion of a record, converting arecord from one type to another (e.g., converting a lead to anopportunity), closing a record (e.g., a case type record), andpotentially any other state change of a record—any of which couldinclude a field change associated with the state change. Any of theseevents update the record whether by changing a field of the record, astate of the record, or some other characteristic or property of therecord. In one implementation, a list of supported events for creating afeed tracked update can be maintained within the database system, e.g.,at a server or in a database.

In block 320, the database system writes new data to the first record.In one implementation, the new data may include a new value thatreplaces old data. For example, a field is updated with a new value. Inanother implementation, the new data can be a value for a field that didnot contain data before. In yet another implementation, the new datacould be a flag, e.g., for a status of the record, which can be storedas a field of the record.

In some implementations, a “field” can also include records, which arechild objects of the first record in a parent-child hierarchy. A fieldcan alternatively include a pointer to a child record. A child objectitself can include further fields. Thus, if a field of a child object isupdated with a new value, the parent record also can be considered tohave a field changed. In one example, a field could be a list of relatedchild objects, also called a related list.

In block 330, a feed tracked update is generated about the update to therecord. In one implementation, the feed tracked update is created inparts for assembling later into a display version. For example, evententries can be created and tracked in a first table, and changed fieldentries can be tracked in another table that is cross-referenced withthe first table. More specifics of such implementations are providedlater, e.g., with respect to FIG. 9A. In another implementation, thefeed tracked update is automatically generated by the database system.The feed tracked update can convey in words that the first record hasbeen updated and provide details about what was updated in the recordand who performed the update. In some implementations, a feed trackedupdate is generated for only certain types of event and/or updatesassociated with the first record.

In one implementation, a tenant (e.g., through an administrator) canconfigure the database system to create (enable) feed tracked updatesonly for certain types of records. For example, an administrator canspecify that records of designated types such as accounts andopportunities are enabled. When an update (or other event) is receivedfor the enabled record type, then a feed tracked update would begenerated. In another implementation, a tenant can also specify thefields of a record whose changes are to be tracked, and for which feedtracked updates are created. In one aspect, a maximum number of fieldscan be specified for tracking, and may include custom fields. In oneimplementation, the type of change can also be specified, for example,that the value change of a field is to be larger than a threshold (e.g.,an absolute amount or a percentage change). In yet anotherimplementation, a tenant can specify which events are to cause ageneration of a feed tracked update. Also, in one implementation,individual users can specify configurations specific to them, which cancreate custom feeds as described in more detail below.

In one implementation, changes to fields of a child object are nottracked to create feed tracked updates for the parent record. In anotherimplementation, the changes to fields of a child object can be trackedto create feed tracked updates for the parent record. For example, achild object of the parent type can be specified for tracking, andcertain fields of the child object can be specified for tracking. Asanother example, if the child object is of a type specified fortracking, then a tracked change for the child object is propagated toparent records of the child object.

In block 340, the feed tracked update is added to a feed for the firstrecord. In one implementation, adding the feed tracked update to a feedcan include adding events to a table (which may be specific to a recordor be for all or a group of objects), where a display version of a feedtracked update can be generated dynamically and presented in a GUI as afeed item when a user requests a feed for the first record. In anotherimplementation, a display version of a feed tracked update can be addedwhen a record feed is stored and maintained for a record. As mentionedabove, a feed may be maintained for only certain records. In oneimplementation, the feed of a record can be stored in the databaseassociated with the record. For example, the feed can be stored as afield (e.g., as a child object) of the record. Such a field can store apointer to the text to be displayed for the feed tracked update.

In some implementations, only the current feed tracked update (or othercurrent feed item) may be kept or temporarily stored, e.g., in sometemporary memory structure. For example, a feed tracked update for onlya most recent change to any particular field is kept. In otherimplementations, many previous feed tracked updates may be kept in thefeed. A time and/or date for each feed tracked update can be tracked.Herein, a feed of a record is also referred to as an entity feed, as arecord is an instance of a particular entity object of the database.

In block 350, followers of the first record can be identified. Afollower is a user following the first record, such as a subscriber tothe feed of the first record. In one implementation, when a userrequests a feed of a particular record, such an identification of block350 can be omitted. In another implementation where a record feed ispushed to a user (e.g., as part of a news feed), then the user can beidentified as a follower of the first record. Accordingly, this blockcan include the identification of records and other objects beingfollowed by a particular user.

In one implementation, the database system can store a list of thefollowers for a particular record. In various implementations, the listcan be stored with the first record or associated with the record usingan identifier (e.g., a pointer) to retrieve the list. For example, thelist can be stored in a field of the first record. In anotherimplementation, a list of the records that a user is following is used.In one implementation, the database system can have a routine that runsfor each user, where the routine polls the records in the list todetermine if a new feed tracked update has been added to a feed of therecord. In another implementation, the routine for the user can berunning at least partially on a user device, which contacts the databaseto perform the polling.

In block 360, in one implementation, the feed tracked update can bestored in a table, as described in greater detail below. When the useropens a feed, an appropriate query is sent to one or more tables toretrieve updates to records, also described in greater detail below. Insome implementations, the feed shows feed tracked updates in reversechronological order. In one implementation, the feed tracked update ispushed to the feed of a user, e.g., by a routine that determines thefollowers for the record from a list associated with the record. Inanother implementation, the feed tracked update is pulled to a feed,e.g., by a user device. This pulling may occur when a user requests thefeed, as occurs in block 370. Thus, these actions may occur in adifferent order. The creation of the feed for a pull may be a dynamiccreation that identifies records being followed by the requesting user,generates the display version of relevant feed tracked updates fromstored information (e.g., event and field change), and adds the feedtracked updates into the feed. A feed of feed tracked updates of recordsand other objects that a user is following is also generally referred toherein as a news feed, which can be a subset of a larger informationfeed in which other types of information updates appear, such as posts.

In yet another implementation, the feed tracked update could be sent asan email to the follower, instead of in a feed. In one implementation,email alerts for events can enable people to be emailed when certainevents occur. In another implementation, emails can be sent when thereare posts on a user profile and posts on entities to which the usersubscribes. In one implementation, a user can turn on/off email alertsfor all or some events. In an implementation, a user can specify whatkind of feed tracked updates to receive about a record that the user isfollowing. For example, a user can choose to only receive feed trackedupdates about certain fields of a record that the user is following, andpotentially about what kind of update was performed (e.g., a new valueinput into a specified field, or the creation of a new field).

In block 370, a follower can access his/her news feed to see the feedtracked update. In one implementation, the user has just one news feedfor all of the records that the user is following. In one aspect, a usercan access his/her own feed by selecting a particular tab or otherobject on a page of an interface to the database system. Once selectedthe feed can be provided as a list, e.g., with an identifier (e.g., atime) or including some or all of the text of the feed tracked update.In another implementation, the user can specify how the feed trackedupdates are to be displayed and/or sent to the user. For example, a usercan specify a font for the text, a location of where the feed can beselected and displayed, amount of text to be displayed, and other textor symbols to be displayed (e.g., importance flags).

FIG. 4 shows a block diagram of an example of components of a databasesystem configuration 400 performing a method for tracking an update to arecord according to some implementations. Database system configuration400 can perform implementations of method 300, as well asimplementations of other methods described herein.

A first user 405 sends a request 1 to update record 425 in databasesystem 416. Although an update request is described, other events thatare being tracked are equally applicable. In various implementations,the request 1 can be sent via a user interface (e.g., 30 of FIG. 1B) oran application program interface (e.g., API 32). An I/O port 420 canaccommodate the signals of request 1 via any input interface, and sendthe signals to one or more processors 417. The processor 417 can analyzethe request and determine operations to be performed. Herein, anyreference to a processor 417 can refer to a specific processor or anyset of processors in database system 416, which can be collectivelyreferred to as processor 417.

Processor 417 can determine an identifier for record 425, and sendcommands with the new data 2 of the request to record database 412 toupdate record 425. In one implementation, record database 412 is wheretenant storage space 112 of FIG. 1B is located. The request 1 and newdata commands 2 can be encapsulated in a single write transaction sentto record database 412. In one implementation, multiple changes torecords in the database can be made in a single write transaction.

Processor 417 can also analyze request 1 to determine whether a feedtracked update is to be created, which at this point may includedetermining whether the event (e.g., a change to a particular field) isto be tracked. This determination can be based on an interaction (i.e.,an exchange of data) with record database 412 and/or other databases, orbased on information stored locally (e.g., in cache or RAM) at processor417. In one implementation, a list of record types that are beingtracked can be stored. The list may be different for each tenant, e.g.,as each tenant may configure the database system to its ownspecifications. Thus, if the record 425 is of a type not being tracked,then the determination of whether to create a feed tracked update canstop there.

The same list or a second list (which can be stored in a same locationor a different location) can also include the fields and/or events thatare tracked for the record types in the first list. This list can besearched to determine if the event is being tracked. A list may alsocontain information having the granularity of listing specific recordsthat are to be tracked (e.g., if a tenant can specify the particularrecords to be tracked, as opposed to just type).

As an example, processor 417 may obtain an identifier associated withrecord 425 (e.g., obtained from request 1 or database 412), potentiallyalong with a tenant identifier, and cross-reference the identifier witha list of records for which feed tracked updates are to be created.Specifically, the record identifier can be used to determine the recordtype and a list of tracked types can be searched for a match. Thespecific record may also be checked if such individual record trackingwas enabled. The name of the field to be changed can also be used tosearch a list of tracking-enabled fields. Other criteria besides fieldand events can be used to determine whether a feed tracked update iscreated, e.g., type of change in the field. If a feed tracked update isto be generated, processor 417 can then generate the feed trackedupdate.

In some implementations, a feed tracked update is created dynamicallywhen a feed (e.g., the entity feed of record 425) is requested. Thus, inone implementation, a feed tracked update can be created when a userrequests the entity feed for record 425. In this implementation, thefeed tracked update may be created (e.g., assembled), includingre-created, each time the entity feed is to be displayed to any user. Inone implementation, one or more event history tables can keep track ofprevious events so that the feed tracked update can be re-created.

In another implementation, a feed tracked update can be created at thetime the event occurs, and the feed tracked update can be added to alist of feed items. The list of feed items may be specific to record425, or may be an aggregate of feed items including feed items for manyrecords. Such an aggregate list can include a record identifier so thatthe feed items for the entity feed of record 425 can be easilyretrieved. For example, after the feed tracked update has beengenerated, processor 417 can add the new feed tracked update 3 to a feedof record 425. As mentioned above, in one implementation, the feed canbe stored in a field (e.g., as a child object) of record 425. In anotherimplementation, the feed can be stored in another location or in anotherdatabase, but with a link (e.g., a connecting identifier) to record 425.The feed can be organized in various ways, e.g., as a linked list, anarray, or other data structure.

A second user 430 can access the new feed tracked update 3 in variousways. In one implementation, second user 430 can send a request 4 forthe record feed. For example, second user 430 can access a home page(detail page) of the record 425 (e.g., with a query or by browsing), andthe feed can be obtained through a tab, button, or other activationobject on the page. The feed can be displayed on the screen ordownloaded.

In another implementation, processor 417 can add the new feed trackedupdate 5 to a feed (e.g., a news feed) of a user that is followingrecord 425. In one implementation, processor 417 can determine each ofthe followers of record 425 by accessing a list of the users that havebeen registered as followers. This determination can be done for eachnew event (e.g., update 1). In another implementation, processor 417 canpoll (e.g., with a query) the records that second user 430 is followingto determine when new feed tracked updates (or other feed items) areavailable. Processor 417 can use a follower profile 435 of second user430 that can contain a list of the records that the second user 430 isfollowing. Such a list can be contained in other parts of the databaseas well. Second user 430 can then send a request 6 to his/her profile435 to obtain a feed, which contains the new feed tracked update. Theuser's profile 435 can be stored in a profile database 414, which can bethe same or different than database 412.

In some implementations, a user can define a news feed to include newfeed tracked updates from various records, which may be limited to amaximum number. In one implementation, each user has one news feed. Inanother implementation, the follower profile 435 can include thespecifications of each of the records to be followed (with the criteriafor what feed tracked updates are to be provided and how they aredisplayed), as well as the feed.

Some implementations can provide various types of record (entity) feeds.Entity Feeds can exist for record types like account, opportunity, case,and contact. An entity feed can tell a user about the actions thatpeople have taken on that particular record or on one its relatedrecords. The entity feed can include who made the action, which fieldwas changed, and the old and new values. In one implementation, entityfeeds can exist on all supported records as a list that is linked to thespecific record. For example, a feed could be stored in a field thatallows lists (e.g., linked lists) or as a child object.

IV. Tracking Actions of a User

In addition to knowing about events associated with a particular record,it can be helpful for a user to know what a particular user is doing. Inparticular, it might be nice to know what the user is doing without theuser having to generate the feed tracked update (e.g., a user submittinga synopsis of what the user has done). Accordingly, implementations canautomatically track actions of a user that trigger events, and feedtracked updates can be generated for certain events.

FIG. 5 shows a flowchart of an example of a method 500 for trackingactions of a user of a database system, performed in accordance withsome implementations. Method 500 may be performed in addition to method300. The operations of method 300, including order of blocks, can beperformed in conjunction with method 500 and other methods describedherein. Thus, a feed can be composed of changes to a record and actionsof users.

In block 510, a database system (e.g., 16 of FIGS. 1A and 1B) identifiesan action of a first user. In one implementation, the action triggers anevent, and the event is identified. For example, the action of a userrequesting an update to a record can be identified, where the event isreceiving a request or is the resulting update of a record. The actionmay thus be defined by the resulting event. In another implementation,only certain types of actions (events) are identified. Which actions areidentified can be set as a default or can be configurable by a tenant,or even configurable at a user level. In this way, processing effort canbe reduced since only some actions are identified.

In block 520, it is determined whether the event qualifies for a feedtracked update. In one implementation, a predefined list of events(e.g., as mentioned herein) can be created so that only certain actionsare identified. In one implementation, an administrator (or other user)of a tenant can specify the type of actions (events) for which a feedtracked update is to be generated. This block may also be performed formethod 300.

In block 530, a feed tracked update is generated about the action. In anexample where the action is an update of a record, the feed trackedupdate can be similar or the same as the feed tracked update created forthe record. The description can be altered though to focus on the useras opposed to the record. For example, “John D. has closed a newopportunity for account XYZ” as opposed to “an opportunity has beenclosed for account XYZ.”

In block 540, the feed tracked update is added to a profile feed of thefirst user when, e.g., the user clicks on a tab to open a page in abrowser program displaying the feed. In one implementation, a feed for aparticular user can be accessed on a page of the user's profile, in asimilar manner as a record feed can be accessed on a detail page of therecord. In another implementation, the first user may not have a profilefeed and the feed tracked update may just be stored temporarily beforeproceeding. A profile feed of a user can be stored associated with theuser's profile. This profile feed can be added to a news feed of anotheruser.

In block 550, followers of the first user are identified. In oneimplementation, a user can specify which type of actions other users canfollow. Similarly, in one implementation, a follower can select whatactions by a user the follower wants to follow. In an implementationwhere different followers follow different types of actions, which usersare followers of that user and the particular action can be identified,e.g., using various lists that track what actions and criteria are beingfollowed by a particular user. In various implementations, the followersof the first user can be identified in a similar manner as followers ofa record, as described above for block 350.

In block 560, the feed tracked update is added to a news feed of eachfollower of the first user when, e.g., the follower clicks on a tab toopen a page displaying the news feed. The feed tracked update can beadded in a similar manner as the feed items for a record feed. The newsfeed can contain feed tracked updates both about users and records. Inanother implementation, a user can specify what kind of feed trackedupdates to receive about a user that the user is following. For example,a user could specify feed tracked updates with particular keywords, ofcertain types of records, of records owned or created by certain users,particular fields, and other criteria as mentioned herein.

In block 570, a follower accesses the news feed and sees the feedtracked update. In one implementation, the user has just one news feedfor all of the records that the user is following. In anotherimplementation, a user can access his/her own feed (i.e. feed abouthis/her own actions) by selecting a particular tab or other object on apage of an interface to the database system. Thus, a feed can includefeed tracked updates about what other users are doing in the databasesystem. When a user becomes aware of a relevant action of another user,the user can contact the co-worker, thereby fostering teamwork.

V. Generation of a Feed Tracked Update

As described above, some implementations can generate text describingevents (e.g., updates) that have occurred for a record and actions by auser that trigger an event. A database system can be configured togenerate the feed tracked updates for various events in various ways.

In one implementation, the feed tracked update is a grammaticalsentence, thereby being easily understandable by a person. In anotherimplementation, the feed tracked update provides detailed informationabout the update. In various examples, an old value and new value for afield may be included in the feed tracked update, an action for theupdate may be provided (e.g., submitted for approval), and the names ofparticular users that are responsible for replying or acting on the feedtracked update may be also provided. The feed tracked update can alsohave a level of importance based on settings chosen by theadministrator, a particular user requesting an update, or by a followinguser who is to receive the feed tracked update, which fields is updated,a percentage of the change in a field, the type of event, or anycombination of these factors.

The system may have a set of heuristics for creating a feed trackedupdate from the event (e.g., a request to update). For example, thesubject may be the user, the record, or a field being added or changed.The verb can be based on the action requested by the user, which can beselected from a list of verbs (which may be provided as defaults orinput by an administrator of a tenant). In one implementation, feedtracked updates can be generic containers with formatting restrictions,

As an example of a feed tracked update for a creation of a new record,“Mark Abramowitz created a new Opportunity for IBM—20,000 laptops withAmount as $3.5 M and Sam Palmisano as Decision Maker.” This event can beposted to the profile feed for Mark Abramowitz and the entity feed forrecord of Opportunity for IBM—20,000 laptops. The pattern can be givenby (AgentFullName) created a new (ObjectName)(RecordName) with[(FieldName) as (FieldValue) [, / and]]*[[added/changed/removed](RelatedListRecordName) [as/to/as] (RelatedListRecordValue) [, / and]]*.Similar patterns can be formed for a changed field (standard or custom)and an added child record to a related list.

VI. Tracking Commentary from or about a User

Some implementations can also have a user submit text, instead of thedatabase system generating a feed tracked update. As the text issubmitted as part or all of a message by a user, the text can be aboutany topic. Thus, more information than just actions of a user and eventsof a record can be conveyed. In one implementation, the messages can beused to ask a question about a particular record, and users followingthe record can provide comments and responses.

FIG. 6 shows a flowchart of an example of a method 600 for creating anews feed from messages created by a user about a record or anotheruser, performed in accordance with some implementations. In oneimplementation, method 600 can be combined with methods 300 and 500. Inone aspect, a message can be associated with the first user when thefirst user creates the message (e.g., a post or comment about a recordor another user). In another aspect, a message can be associated withthe first user when the message is about the first user (e.g., posted byanother user on the first user's profile feed).

In block 610, the database system receives a message (e.g., a post orstatus update) associated with a first user. The message (e.g., a postor status update) can contain text and/or multimedia content submittedby another user or by the first user. In one implementation, a post isfor a section of the first user's profile page where any user can add apost, and where multiple posts can exist. Thus, a post can appear on thefirst user's profile page and can be viewed when the first user'sprofile is visited. For a message about a record, the post can appear ona detail page of a record. Note the message can appear in other feeds aswell. In another implementation, a status update about the first usercan only be added by the first user. In one implementation, a user canonly have one status message.

In block 620, the message is added to a table, as described in greaterdetail below. When the feed is opened, a query filters one or moretables to identify the first user, identify other persons that the useris following, and retrieve the message. Messages and record updates arepresented in a combined list as the feed. In this way, in oneimplementation, the message can be added to a profile feed of the firstuser, which is associated (e.g., as a related list) with the firstuser's profile. In one implementation, the posts are listedindefinitely. In another implementation, only the most recent posts(e.g., last 50) are kept in the profile feed. Such implementations canalso be employed with feed tracked updates. In yet anotherimplementation, the message can be added to a profile of the user addingthe message.

In block 630, the database system identifies followers of the firstuser. In one implementation, the database system can identify thefollowers as described above for method 500. In various implementations,a follower can select to follow a feed about the actions of the firstuser, messages about the first user, or both (potentially in a samefeed).

In block 640, the message is added to a news feed of each follower. Inone implementation, the message is only added to a news feed of aparticular follower if the message matches some criteria, e.g., themessage includes a particular keyword or other criteria. In anotherimplementation, a message can be deleted by the user who created themessage. In one implementation, once deleted by the author, the messageis deleted from all feeds to which the message had been added.

In block 650, the follower accesses a news feed and sees the message.For example, the follower can access a news feed on the follower's ownprofile page. As another example, the follower can have a news feed sentto his/her own desktop without having to first go to a home page.

In block 660, the database system receives a comment about the message.The database system can add the comment to a feed of the same firstuser, much as the original message was added. In one implementation, thecomment can also be added to a feed of a second user who added thecomment. In one implementation, users can also reply to the comment. Inanother implementation, users can add comments to a feed tracked update,and further comments can be associated with the feed tracked update. Inyet another implementation, making a comment or message is not an actionto which a feed tracked update is created. Thus, the message may be theonly feed item created from such an action.

In one implementation, if a feed tracked update or post is deleted, itscorresponding comments are deleted as well. In another implementation,new comments on a feed tracked update or post do not update the feedtracked update timestamp. Also, the feed tracked update or post cancontinue to be shown in a feed (profile feed, record feed, or news feed)if it has had a comment within a specified timeframe (e.g., within thelast week). Otherwise, the feed tracked update or post can be removed inan implementation.

In some implementations, all or most feed tracked updates can becommented on. In other implementations, feed tracked updates for certainrecords (e.g., cases or ideas) are not commentable. In variousimplementations, comments can be made for any one or more records ofopportunities, accounts, contacts, leads, and custom objects.

In block 670, the comment is added to a news feed of each follower. Inone implementation, a user can make the comment within the user's newsfeed. Such a comment can propagate to the appropriate profile feed orrecord feed, and then to the news feeds of the following users. Thus,feeds can include what people are saying, as well as what they aredoing. In one aspect, feeds are a way to stay up-to-date (e.g., onusers, opportunities, etc.) as well as an opportunity to reach out toco-workers/partners and engage them around common goals.

In some implementations, users can rate feed tracked updates or messages(including comments). A user can choose to prioritize a display of afeed so that higher rated feed items show up higher on a display. Forexample, in an implementation where comments are answers to a specificquestion, users can rate the different status posts so that a bestanswer can be identified. As another example, users are able to quicklyidentify feed items that are most important as those feed items can bedisplayed at a top of a list. The order of the feed items can be basedon an importance level (which can be determined by the database systemusing various factors, some of which are mentioned herein) and based ona rating from users. In one implementation, the rating is on a scalethat includes at least 3 values. In another implementation, the ratingis based on a binary scale.

Besides a profile for a user, a group can also be created. In variousimplementations, the group can be created based on certain attributesthat are common to the users, can be created by inviting users, and/orcan be created by receiving requests to join from a user. In oneimplementation, a group feed can be created, with messages being addedto the group feed when someone submits a message to the group as a wholethrough a suitable user interface. For example, a group page may have agroup feed or a section within the feed for posts, and a user can submita post through a publisher component in the user interface by clickingon a “Share” or similar button. In another implementation, a message canbe added to a group feed when the message is submitted about any one ofthe members. Also, a group feed can include feed tracked updates aboutactions of the group as a whole (e.g., when an administrator changesdata in a group profile or a record owned by the group), or aboutactions of an individual member.

FIG. 7 shows an example of a group feed on a group page according tosome implementations. As shown, a feed item 710 shows that a user hasposted a document to the group object. The text “Bill Bauer has postedthe document Competitive Insights” can be generated by the databasesystem in a similar manner as feed tracked updates about a record beingchanged. A feed item 720 shows a post to the group, along with comments730 from Ella Johnson, James Saxon, Mary Moore and Bill Bauer.

FIG. 8 shows an example of a record feed containing a feed trackedupdate, post, and comments according to some implementations. Feed item810 shows a feed tracked update based on the event of submitting adiscount for approval. Other feed items show posts, e.g., from BillBauer, that are made to the record and comments, e.g., from Erica Lawand Jake Rapp, that are made on the posts.

VII. Infrastructure for a Feed

A. Tables Used to Create a Feed

FIG. 9A shows an example of a plurality of feed tracked update tablesthat may be used in tracking events and creating feeds according to someimplementations. The tables of FIG. 9A may have entries added, orpotentially removed, as part of tracking events in the database fromwhich feed items are creates or that correspond to feed items. In oneimplementation, each tenant has its own set of tables that are createdbased on criteria provided by the tenant.

An event history table 910 can provide a feed tracked update of eventsfrom which feed items are created. In one aspect, the events are forobjects that are being tracked. Thus, table 910 can store and changefeed tracked updates for feeds, and the changes can be persisted. Invarious implementations, event history table 910 can have columns ofevent ID 911, object ID 912 (also called parent ID), and created by ID913. The event ID 911 can uniquely identify a particular event and canstart at 1 (or other number or value).

Each new event can be added chronologically with a new event ID, whichmay be incremented in order. An object ID 912 can be used to track whichrecord or user's profile is being changed. For example, the object IDcan correspond to the record whose field is being changed or the userwhose feed is receiving a post. The created by ID 913 can track the userwho is performing the action that results in the event, e.g., the userthat is changing the field or that is posting a message to the profileof another user.

In one implementation, a name of an event can also be stored in table910. In one implementation, a tenant can specify events that they wanttracked. In an implementation, event history table 910 can include thename of the field that changed (e.g., old and new values). In anotherimplementation, the name of the field, and the values, are stored in aseparate table. Other information about an event (e.g., text of comment,feed tracked update, post or status update) can be stored in eventhistory table 910, or in other tables, as is now described.

A field change table 920 can provide a feed tracked update of thechanges to the fields. The columns of table 920 can include an event ID921 (which correlates to the event ID 911), an old value 922 for thefield, and the new value 923 for the field. In one implementation, if anevent changes more than one field value, then there can be an entry foreach field changed. As shown, event ID 921 has two entries for eventE37.

A comment table 930 can provide a feed tracked update of the commentsmade regarding an event, e.g., a comment on a post or a change of afield value. The columns of table 930 can include an event ID 921 (whichcorrelates to the event ID 911), the comment column 932 that stores thetext of the comment, and the time/date 933 of the comment. In oneimplementation, there can be multiple comments for each event. As shown,event ID 921 has two entries for event E37.

A user subscription table 940 can provide a list of the objects beingfollowed (subscribed to) by a user. In one implementation, each entryhas a user ID 941 of the user doing the following and one object ID 942corresponding to the object being followed. In one implementation, theobject being followed can be a record or a user. As shown, the user withID U819 is following object IDs O615 and O489. If user U819 is followingother objects, then additional entries may exist for user U819. Also asshown, user U719 is also following object O615. The user subscriptiontable 940 can be updated when a user adds or deletes an object that isbeing followed.

In one implementation, regarding a profile feed and a news feed, theseare read-only views on the event history table 910 specialized for thesefeed types. Conceptually the news feed can be a semi join between theuser subscription table 940 and the event history table 910 on theobject IDs 912 and 942 for the user. In one aspect, these entities canhave polymorphic parents and can be subject to a number of restrictionsdetailed herein, e.g., to limit the cost of sharing checks.

In one implementation, entity feeds are modeled in the API as a feedassociate entity (e.g., AccountFeed, CaseFeed, etc). A feed associateentity includes information composed of events (e.g., event IDs) foronly one particular record type. Such a list can limit the query (andsharing checks) to a specific record type. In one aspect, thisstructuring of the entity feeds can make the query run faster. Forexample, a request for a feed of a particular account can include therecord type of account. In one implementation, an account feed table canthen be searched, where the table has account record IDs andcorresponding event IDs or pointers to particular event entries in eventhistory table 910. Since the account feed table only contains some ofthe records (not all), the query can run faster.

In one implementation, there may be objects with no events listed in theevent history table 910, even though the record is being tracked. Inthis case, the database service can return a result indicating that nofeed items exist.

A feed item can represent an individual field change of a record,creation and deletion of a record, or other events being tracked for arecord or a user. In one implementation, all of the feed items in asingle transaction (event) can be grouped together and have the sameevent ID. A single transaction relates to the operations that can beperformed in a single communication with the database. In anotherimplementation where a feed is an object of the database, a feed itemcan be a child of a profile feed, news feed, or entity feed. If a feeditem is added to multiple feeds, the feed item can be replicated as achild of each feed to which the feed item is added.

In some implementations, a comment exists as an item that depends fromfeed tracked updates, posts, status updates, and other items that areindependent of each other. Thus, a feed comment object can exist as achild object of a feed item object. For example, comment table 930 canbe considered a child table of event history table 910. In oneimplementation, a feed comment can be a child of a profile feed, newsfeed, or entity feed that is separate from other feed items.

In one implementation, viewing a feed pulls up the most recent messagesor feed tracked updates (e.g., 25) and searches the most recent (e.g.,4) comments for each feed item. The comments can be identified via thecomment table 930. In one implementation, a user can request to see morecomments, e.g., by selecting a see more link.

After feed items have been generated, they can be filtered so that onlycertain feed items are displayed, which may be tailored to a specifictenant and/or user. In one implementation, a user can specify changes toa field that meet certain criteria for the feed item to show up in afeed displayed to the user, e.g., a news feed or even an entity feeddisplayed directly to the user. In one implementation, the criteria canbe combined with other factors (e.g., number of feed items in the feed)to determine which feed items to display. For instance, if a smallnumber of feed items exist (e.g., below a threshold), then all of thefeed items may be displayed.

In one implementation, a user can specify the criteria via a query onthe feed items in his/her new feed, and thus a feed may only returnobjects of a certain type, certain types of events, feed tracked updatesabout certain fields, and other criteria mentioned herein. Messages canalso be filtered according to some criteria, which may be specified in aquery. Such an added query can be added onto a standard query that isused to create the news feed for a user. A first user could specify theusers and records that the first user is following in this manner, aswell as identify the specific feed items that the first user wants tofollow. The query could be created through a graphical interface oradded by a user directly in a query language. Other criteria couldinclude receiving only posts directed to a particular user or record, asopposed to other feed items.

In one implementation, a user can access a feed of a record if the usercan access the record. The security rules for determining whether a userhas access to a record can be performed in a variety of ways, some ofwhich are described in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 8,095,531, titledMETHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR CONTROLLING ACCESS TO CUSTOM OBJECTS IN ADATABASE, by Weissman et al., issued on Jan. 10, 2012, and herebyincorporated by reference in its entirety and for all purposes.

In one implementation, a user can edit a feed of a record if the userhas access to the record, e.g., deleting or editing a feed item. Inanother implementation, a user (besides an administrator) cannot edit afeed item, except for performing an action from which a feed item can becreated. In one example, a user is first has to have access to aparticular record and field for a feed item to be created based on anaction of the user. In this case, an administrator can be considered tobe a user with MODIFY-ALL-DATA security level. In yet anotherimplementation, a user who created the record can edit the feed.

In one implementation, the text of posts are stored in a child table(post table 950), which can be cross-referenced with event history table910. Post table 950 can include event ID 951 (to cross-reference withevent ID 911), post text 952 to store the text of the post, andtime/date 953. An entry in post table 950 can be considered a feed postobject.

VIII. Subscribing to Users and Records to Follow

As described above, a user can follow users, groups, and records.

Implementations can provide mechanisms for a user to manage which users,groups, and records that the user is currently following. In oneimplementation, a user can be limited to the number of users and records(collectively or separately) that the user can follow. For example, auser may be restricted to only following 10 users and 15 records, or asanother example, 25 total. Alternatively, the user may be permitted tofollow more or less users.

In one implementation, a user can go to a page of a record and thenselect to follow that object (e.g., with a button marked “follow” or“join”). In another implementation, a user can search for a record andhave the matching records show up in a list. The search can includecriteria of records that the user might want to follow. Such criteriacan include the owner, the creation date, last comment date, andnumerical values of particular fields (e.g., an opportunity with a valueof more than $10,000).

A follow button (or other activation object) can then reside next toeach record in the resulting list, and the follow button can be selectedto start following the record. Similarly, a user can go to a profilepage of a user and select to follow the user, or a search for users canprovide a list, where one or more users can be selected for followingfrom the list. The selections of subscribing and unsubscribing can addand delete rows in table 920.

In some implementations, a subscription center acts as a centralizedplace in a database application (e.g., application platform 18) tomanage which records a user subscribes to, and which field updates theuser wants to see in feed tracked updates. The subscription center canuse a subscription table to keep track of the subscriptions of varioususers. In one implementation, the subscription center shows a list ofall the items (users and records) a user is subscribed to. In anotherimplementation, a user can unsubscribe to subscribed objects from thesubscription center.

A. Automatic Subscription

FIG. 9B shows a flowchart of an example of a method 900 forautomatically subscribing a user to an object in a database system,performed in accordance with some implementations. Any of the followingblocks can be performed wholly or partially with the database system,and in particular by one or more processor of the database system.

In block 901, one or more properties of an object stored in the databasesystem are received. The properties can be received from administratorsof the database system, or from users of the database system (which maybe an administrator of a customer organization). The properties can berecords or users, and can include any of the fields of the object thatare stored in the database system. Examples of properties of a recordinclude: an owner of the record, a user that converted the record fromone record type to another record type, whether the first user hasviewed the record, and a time the first user viewed the record. Examplesof properties of a user include: which organization (tenant) the user isassociated with, the second user's position in the same organization,and which other users the user had emailed or worked with on projects.

In block 902, the database system receives one or more criteria aboutwhich users are to automatically follow the object. Examples of thecriteria can include: an owner or creator of a record is to follow therecord, subordinates of an owner or creator of a record are to followthe record, and a user is to follow his/her manager, the user's peers,other users in the same business group as the user, and other users thatthe user has emailed or worked with on a project. The criteria can bespecific to a user or group of users (e.g., users of a tenant).

In block 903, the database system determines whether the one or moreproperties of the object satisfy the one or more criteria for a firstuser. In one implementation, this determination can occur by firstobtaining the criteria and then determining objects that satisfy thecriteria. The determination can occur periodically, at time of creationof an object, or at other times.

In block 904, if the criteria are satisfied, the object is associatedwith the first user. The association can be in a list that storesinformation as to what objects are being followed by the first user.User subscription table 940 is an example of such a list. In oneimplementation, the one or more criteria are satisfied if one propertysatisfies at least one criterion. Thus, if the criteria are that a userfollows his/her manager and the object is the user's manager, then thefirst user will follow the object.

In one implementation, a user can also be automatically unsubscribed,e.g., if a certain action happens. The action could be a change in theuser's position within the organization, e.g., a demotion or becoming acontractor. As another example, if a case gets closed, then usersfollowing the case may be automatically unsubscribed.

IX. Adding Items to a Feed

As described above, a feed includes feed items, which include feedtracked updates and messages, as defined herein. Various feeds can begenerated. For example, a feed can be generated about a record or abouta user. Then, users can view these feeds. A user can separately view afeed of a record or user, e.g., by going to a home page for the user orthe record. As described above, a user can also follow another user orrecord and receive the feed items of those feeds through a separate feedapplication. The feed application can provide each of the feeds that auser is following and, in some examples, can combine various feeds in asingle information feed.

A feed generator can refer to any software program running on aprocessor or a dedicated processor (or combination thereof) that cangenerate feed items (e.g., feed tracked updates or messages) and combinethem into a feed. In one implementation, the feed generator can generatea feed item by receiving a feed tracked update or message, identifyingwhat feeds the item should be added to, and adding the feed. Adding thefeed can include adding additional information (metadata) to the feedtracked update or message (e.g., adding a document, sender of message, adetermined importance, etc.). The feed generator can also check to makesure that no one sees feed tracked updates for data that they don't haveaccess to see (e.g., according to sharing rules). A feed generator canrun at various times to pre-compute feeds or to compute themdynamically, or combinations thereof.

In one implementation, processor 417 in FIG. 4 can identify an eventthat meets criteria for a feed tracked update, and then generate thefeed tracked update. Processor 417 can also identify a message. Forexample, an application interface can have certain mechanisms forsubmitting a message (e.g., “submit” buttons on a profile page, detailpage of a record, “comment” button on post), and use of these mechanismscan be used to identify a message to be added to a table used to createa feed or added directly to a list of feed items ready for display.

A. Adding Items to a Pre-Computed Feed

In some implementations, a feed of feed items is created before a userrequests the feed. Such an implementation can run fast, but have highoverall costs for storage. In one implementation, once a profile feed ora record feed has been created, a feed item (messages and feed trackedupdates) can be added to the feed. The feed can exist in the databasesystem in a variety of ways, such as a related list. The feed caninclude mechanisms to remove items as well as add them.

As described above, a news feed can be an aggregated feed of all therecord feeds and profile feeds to which a user has subscribed. The newsfeed can be provided on the home page of the subscribing user.Therefore, a news feed can be created by and exist for a particularuser. For example, a user can subscribe to receive entity feeds ofcertain records that are of interest to the user, and to receive profilefeeds of people that are of interest (e.g., people on a same team, thatwork for the user, are a boss of the user, etc.). A news feed can tell auser about all the actions across all the records (and people) whom haveexplicitly (or implicitly) been subscribed to via the subscriptionscenter (described above).

In one implementation, only one instance of each feed tracked update isshown on a user's news feed, even if the feed tracked update ispublished in multiple entities to which the user is subscribed. In oneaspect, there may be delays in publishing news articles. For example,the delay may be due to queued up messages for asynchronous entity feedtracked update persistence. Different feeds may have different delays(e.g., delay for new feeds, but none of profile and entity feeds). Inanother implementation, certain feed tracked updates regarding asubscribed profile feed or an entity feed are not shown because the useris not allowed access, e.g., due to sharing rules (which restrict whichusers can see which data). Also, in one implementation, data of therecord that has been updated (which includes creation) can be providedin the feed (e.g., a file or updated value of a feed can be added as aflash rendition).

B. Dynamically Generating Feeds

In some implementations, a feed generator can generate the feed itemsdynamically when a user requests to see a particular feed, e.g., aprofile feed, entity feed, or the user's news feed. In oneimplementation, the most recent feed items (e.g., top 50) are generatedfirst. In one aspect, the other feed items can be generated as abackground process, e.g., not synchronously with the request to view thefeed. However, since the background process is likely to complete beforea user gets to the next 50 feed items, the feed generation may appearsynchronous. In another aspect, the most recent feed items may or maynot include comments, e.g., that are tied to feed tracked updates orposts.

In one implementation, the feed generator can query the appropriatesubset of tables shown in FIG. 9A and/or other tables as necessary, togenerate the feed items for display. For example, the feed generator canquery the event history table 910 for the updates that occurred for aparticular record. The ID of the particular record can be matchedagainst the ID of the record. In one implementation, changes to a wholeset of records can be stored in one table. The feed generator can alsoquery for status updates, posts, and comments, each of which can bestored in different parts of a record or in separate tables, as shown inFIG. 9A. What gets recorded in the entity event history table (as wellas what is displayed) can be controlled by a feed settings page insetup, which can be configurable by an administrator and can be the samefor the entire organization, as is described above for custom feeds.

In one implementation, there can be two feed generators. For example,one generator can generate the record and profile feeds and anothergenerator can generate news feeds. For the former, the feed generatorcan query identifiers of the record or the user profile. For the latter,the news feed generator can query the subscribed profile feeds andrecord feeds, e.g., user subscription table 940. In one implementation,the feed generator looks at a person's subscription center to decidewhich feeds to query for and return a list of feed items for the user.The list can be de-duped, e.g., by looking at the event number andvalues for the respective table, such as field name or ID, comment ID,or other information.

C. Adding Information to Feed Tracked Update Tables

FIG. 10 shows a flowchart of an example of a method 1000 for savinginformation to feed tracking tables, performed in accordance with someimplementations. In one implementation, some of the blocks may beperformed regardless of whether a specific event or part of an event(e.g., only one field of an update is being tracked) is being tracked.In various implementations, a processor or set of processors (hardwiredor programmed) can perform method 1000 and any other method describedherein.

In block 1010, data indicative of an event is received. The data mayhave a particular identifier that specifies the event. For example,there may be a particular identifier for a field update. In anotherimplementation, the transaction may be investigated for keywordsidentifying the event (e.g., terms in a query indicating a close, changefield, or create operations).

In block 1020, it is determined whether the event is being tracked forinclusion into feed tracked update tables. The determination of what isbeing tracked can be based on a tenant's configuration as describedabove. In one aspect, the event has an actor (person performing anevent), and an object of the event (e.g., record or user profile beingchanged).

In block 1030, the event is written to an event history table (e.g.,table 910). In one implementation, this feed tracking operation can beperformed in the same transaction that performs a save operation forupdating a record. In another implementation, a transaction includes atleast two roundtrip database operations, with one roundtrip being thedatabase save (write), and the second database operation being thesaving of the update in the feed tracked update table. In oneimplementation, the event history table is chronological. In anotherimplementation, if user A posts on user B's profile, then user A isunder the “created by” 913 and user B is under the object ID 912.

In block 1040, a field change table (e.g., field change table 920) canbe updated with an entry having the event identifier and fields thatwere changed in the update. In one implementation, the field changetable is a child table of the event history table. This table caninclude information about each of the fields that are changed. Forexample, for an event that changes the name and balance for an accountrecord, an entry can have the event identifier, the old and new name,and the old and new balance. Alternatively, each field change can be ina different row with the same event identifier. The field name or ID canalso be included to determine which field the values are associated.

In block 1050, when the event is a post, a post table (e.g., post table950) can be updated with an entry having the event identifier and textof the post. In one implementation, the field change table is a childtable of the event history table. In another implementation, the textcan be identified in the transaction (e.g., a query command), strippedout, and put into the entry at the appropriate column. The varioustables described herein can be combined or separated in various ways.For example, the post table and the field change table may be part ofthe same table or distinct tables, or may include overlapping portionsof data.

In block 1060, a comment is received for an event and the comment isadded to a comment table (e.g., comment table 930). The comment could befor a post or an update of a record, from which a feed tracked updatecan be generated for display. In one implementation, the text can beidentified in the transaction (e.g., a query command), stripped out, andput into the entry at the appropriate column.

D. Reading Information from Feed Tracked Update Tables

FIG. 11 shows a flowchart of an example of a method 1100 for reading afeed item as part of generating a feed for display, performed inaccordance with some implementations. In one implementation, the feeditem may be read as part of creating a feed for a record.

In block 1110, a query is received for an events history table (e.g.,event history table 910) for events related to a particular record. Inone implementation, the query includes an identifier of the record forwhich the feed is being requested. In various implementations, the querymay be initiated from a detail page of the record, a home page of a userrequesting the record feed, or from a listing of different records(e.g., obtained from a search or from browsing).

In block 1120, the user's security level can be checked to determine ifthe user can view the record feed. Typically, a user can view a recordfeed, if the user can access the record. This security check can beperformed in various ways. In one implementation, a first table ischecked to see if the user has a classification (e.g., a security levelthat allows him to view records of the given type). In anotherimplementation, a second table is checked to see if the user is allowedto see the specific record. The first table can be checked before thesecond table, and both tables can be different sections of a same table.If the user has requested the feed from the detail page of the record,one implementation can skip the security level check for the recordsince the check was already done when the user requested to view thedetail page.

In one implementation, a security check is determined upon each requestto view the record feed. Thus, whether or not a feed item is displayedto a user is determined based on access rights, e.g., when the userrequests to see a feed of a record or a news feed of all the objects theuser is following. In this manner, if a user's security changes, a feedautomatically adapts to the user's security level when it is changed. Inanother implementation, a feed can be computed before being requestedand a subsequent security check can be made to determine whether theperson still has access right to view the feed items. The security(access) check may be at the field level, as well as at the recordlevel.

In block 1130, if the user can access the record, a field level securitytable can be checked to determine whether the user can see particularfields. In one implementation, only those fields are displayed to theuser. Alternatively, a subset of those the user has access to isdisplayed. The field level security check may optionally be performed atthe same time and even using the same operation as the record levelcheck. In addition, the record type check may also be performed at thistime. If the user can only see certain fields, then any feed itemsrelated to those fields (e.g., as determined from field change table920) can be removed from the feed being displayed.

In block 1140, the feed items that the user has access to are displayed.In one implementation, a predetermined number (e.g., 20) of feed itemsare displayed at a time. The method can display the first 20 feed itemsthat are found to be readable, and then determine others while the useris viewing the first 20. In another implementation, the other feed itemsare not determined until the user requests to see them, e.g., byactivating a see more link.

FIG. 12 shows a flowchart of an example of a method 1200 for reading afeed item of a profile feed for display, performed in accordance withsome implementations. In one implementation, the query includes anidentifier of the user profile feed that is being requested. Certainblocks may be optional, as is also true for other methods describedherein. For example, security checks may not be performed.

In block 1210, a query is directed to an event history table (e.g.,event history table 910) for events having a first user as the actor ofthe event (e.g., creation of an account) or on which the event occurred(e.g., a post to the user's profile). In various implementations, thequery may be initiated by a second user from the user's profile page, ahome page of a user requesting the profile feed (e.g., from a list ofusers being followed), or from a listing of different users (e.g.,obtained from a search or from browsing). Various mechanisms fordetermining aspects of events and obtaining information from tables canbe the same across any of the methods described herein.

In block 1220, a security check may also be performed on whether thesecond user can see the first user's profile. In one implementation anyuser can see the profile of another user of the same tenant, and block1220 is optional.

In block 1230, a security (access) check can be performed for the feedtracked updates based on record types, records, and/or fields, as wellsecurity checks for messages. In one implementation, only the feedtracked updates related to records that the person has updated are theones that need security check as the feed items about the user arereadable by any user of the same tenant. Users of other tenants are notnavigable, and thus security can be enforced at a tenant level. Inanother implementation, messages can be checked for keywords or links toa record or field that the second user does not have access.

As users can have different security classifications, it is importantthat a user with a low-level security cannot see changes to records thathave been performed by a user with high-level security. In oneimplementation, each feed item can be checked and then the viewableresults displayed, but this can be inefficient. For example, such asecurity check may take a long time, and the second user would like toget some results sooner rather than later. The following blocksillustrate one implementation of how security might be checked for afirst user that has a lot of feed items, but the second user cannot seemost of them. This implementation can be used for all situations, butcan be effective in the above situation.

In block 1231, a predetermined number of entries are retrieved from theevent history table (e.g., starting from the most recent, which may bedetermined from the event identifier). The retrieved entries may just beones that match the user ID of the query. In one implementation, entriesare checked to find the entries that are associated with the user andwith a record (i.e. not just posts to the user account). In anotherimplementation, those entries associated with the user are allowed to beviewed, e.g., because the second user can see the profile of the firstuser as determined in block 1220.

In block 1232, the record identifiers are organized by type and the typeis checked on whether the second user can see the record types. Otherchecks such as whether a record was manually shared (e.g., by the owner)can also be performed. In one implementation, the queries for thedifferent types can be done in parallel.

In block 1233, if a user can see the record type, then a check can beperformed on the specific record. In one implementation, if a user cansee a record type, then the user can see all of the records of thattype, and so this block can be skipped. In another implementation, thesharing model can account for whether a user below the second user(e.g., the second user is a manager) can see the record. In such animplementation, the second user may see such a record. In oneimplementation, if a user cannot see a specific record, then comments onthat record are also not viewable.

In block 1234, field level sharing rules can be used to determinewhether the second user can see information about an update or value ofcertain fields. In one implementation, messages can be analyzed todetermine if reference to a particular field name is made. If so, thenfield level security can be applied to the messages.

In block 1280, blocks 1231-1234 are repeated until a stopping criterionis met. In one implementation, the stopping criteria may be when amaximum number (e.g., 100) of entries that are viewable have beenidentified. In another implementation, the stopping criteria can be thata maximum number (e.g., 500) of entries from the entity feed trackedupdate table have been analyzed, regardless of whether the entries areviewable or not.

In one implementation, a news feed can be generated as a combination ofthe profile feeds and the entity feeds, e.g., as described above. In oneimplementation, a list of records and user profiles for the queries inblocks 1110 and 1210 can be obtained form user subscription table 940.In one implementation, there is a maximum number of objects that can befollowed.

E. Partial Pre-Computing of Items for a Feed

FIG. 13 shows a flowchart of an example of a method 1300 of storingevent information for efficient generation of feed items to display in afeed, performed in accordance with some implementations. In variousimplementations, method 1300 can be performed each time an event iswritten to the event history table, or periodically based on some othercriteria (e.g., every minute, after five updates have been made, etc.).

In block 1310, data indicative of an event is received. The data may bethe same and identified in the same way as described for block 1010. Theevent may be written to an event history table (e.g., table 910).

In block 1320, the object(s) associated with the event are identified.In various implementations, the object may be identified by according tovarious criteria, such as the record being changed, the user changingthe record, a user posting a message, and a user whose profile themessage is being posted to.

In block 1330, the users following the event are determined. In oneimplementation, one or more objects that are associated with the eventare used to determine the users following the event. In oneimplementation, a subscription table (e.g., table 940) can be used tofind the identified objects. The entries of the identified objects cancontain an identifier (e.g., user ID 941) of each the users followingthe object

In block 1340, the event and the source of the event, e.g., a record(for a record update) or a posting user (for a user-generated post) arewritten to a news feed table along with an event identifier. In oneimplementation, such information is added as a separate entry into thenews feed table along with the event ID. In another implementation, eachof the events for a user is added as a new column for the row of theuser. In yet another implementation, more columns (e.g., columns fromthe other tables) can be added.

News feed table 960 shows an example of such a table with user ID 961and event ID or pointer 962. The table can be organized in any manner.One difference from event history table 910 is that one event can havemultiple entries (one for each subscriber) in the news feed table 960.In one implementation, all of the entries for a same user are groupedtogether, e.g., as shown. The user U819 is shown as following events E37and E90, and thus any of the individual feed items resulting from thoseevents. In another implementation, any new entries are added at the endof the table. Thus, all of the followers for a new event can be added asa group. In such an implementation, the event IDs would generally begrouped together in the table. Of course, the table can be sorted in anysuitable manner.

In an implementation, if the number of users is small, then the feeditems in one or more of the tables may be written as part of the samewrite transaction. In one implementation, the determination of smalldepends on the number of updates performed for the event (e.g., amaximum number of update operations may be allowed), and if moreoperations are performed, then the addition of the feed items isperformed. In one aspect, the number of operations can be counted by thenumber of rows to be updated, including the rows of the record (whichdepends on the update event), and the rows of the feed tracked updatetables, which can depend on the number of followers. In anotherimplementation, if the number of users is large, the rest of the feeditems can be created by batch. In one implementation, the feed items arewritten as part of a different transaction, i.e., by batch job.

In one implementation, security checks can be performed before an entryis added to the news feed table 960. In this manner, security checks canbe performed during batch jobs and may not have to be performed at thetime of requesting a news feed. In one implementation, the event can beanalyzed and if access is not allowed to a feed item of the event, thenan entry is not added. In one aspect, multiple feed items for a sameuser may not result from a same event (e.g., by how an event is definedin table 910), and thus there is no concern about a user missing a feeditem that he/she should be able to view.

In block 1350, a request for a news feed is received from a user. In oneimplementation, the request is obtained when a user navigates to theuser's home page. In another implementation, the user selects a table,link, or other page item that causes the request to be sent.

In block 1360, the news feed table and other tables are accessed toprovide displayable feed items of the news feed. The news feed can thenbe displayed. In one implementation, the news feed table can then bejoined with the event history table to determine the feed items. Forexample, the news feed table 960 can be searched for entries with aparticular user ID. These entries can be used to identify event entriesin event history table 910, and the proper information from any childtables can be retrieved. The feed items (e.g., feed tracked updates andmessages) can then be generated for display.

In one implementation, the most recent feed items (e.g., 100 mostrecent) are determined first. The other feed items may then bedetermined in a batch process. Thus, the feed item that a user is mostlikely to view can come up first, and the user may not recognize thatthe other feed items are being done in batch. In one implementation, themost recent feed items can be gauged by the event identifiers. Inanother implementation, the feed items with a highest importance levelcan be displayed first. The highest importance being determined by oneor more criteria, such as, who posted the feed item, how recently, howrelated to other feed items, etc.

In one implementation where the user subscription table 940 is used todynamically create a news feed, the query would search the subscriptiontable, and then use the object IDs to search the event history table(one search for each object the user is following). Thus, the query forthe news feed can be proportional to the number of objects that one wassubscribing to. The news feed table allows the intermediate block ofdetermining the object IDs to be done at an earlier stage so that therelevant events are already known. Thus, the determination of the feedis no longer proportional to the number of object being followed.

In some implementations, a news feed table can include a pointer (asopposed to an event identifier) to the event history table for eachevent that is being followed by the user. In this manner, the evententries can immediately be retrieved without having to perform a searchon the event history table. Security checks can be made at this time,and the text for the feed tracked updates can be generated.

X. Display of a Feed

Feeds include messages and feed tracked updates and can show up in manyplaces in an application interface with the database system. In oneimplementation, feeds can be scoped to the context of the page on whichthey are being displayed. For example, how a feed tracked update ispresented can vary depending on which page it is being displayed (e.g.,in news feeds, on a detail page of a record, and even based on how theuser ended up at a particular page). In another implementation, only afinite number of feed items are displayed (e.g., 50). In oneimplementation, there can be a limit specifically on the number of feedtracked updates or messages displayed. Alternatively, the limit can beapplied to particular types of feed tracked updates or messages. Forexample, only the most recent changes (e.g., 5 most recent) for a fieldmay be displayed. Also, the number of fields for which changes aredisplayed can also be limited. Such limits can also be placed on profilefeeds and news feeds. In one implementation, feed items may also besubject to certain filtering criteria before being displayed, e.g., asdescribed below.

XI. Filtering and Searching Feeds

It can be possible that a user subscribes to many users and records,which can cause a user's news feed to be very long and include many feeditems. In such instances, it can be difficult for the user to read everyfeed item, and thus some important or interesting feed items may not beread. In some implementations, filters may be used to determine whichfeed items are added to a feed or displayed in the feed.

FIG. 14 shows a flowchart of an example of a method 1400 for creating acustom feed for users of a database system using filtering criteria,performed in accordance with some implementations. Any of the followingblocks can be performed wholly or partially with the database system,and in particular by one or more processor of the database system.

In block 1410, one or more criteria specifying which feed items are tobe displayed to a first user are received from a tenant. In oneimplementation, the criteria specify which items to add to the customfeed. For example, the criteria could specify to only include feed itemsfor certain fields of a record, messages including certain keywords, andother criteria mentioned herein. In another implementation, the criteriaspecify which items to remove from the custom feed. For example, thecriteria could specify not to include feed items about certain fields orincluding certain keywords.

In block 1420, the database system identifies feed items of one or moreselected objects that match the criteria. The feed items can be storedin the database, e.g., in one or more of the tables of FIG. 9A. In oneimplementation, the one or more selected objects are the objects thatthe first user is following. In another implementation, the one or moreselected objects is a single record whose record feed the first user isrequesting.

In block 1430, the feed items that match the criteria are displayed tothe first user in the custom feed. The generation of text for a feedtracked update can occur after the identification of the feed items(e.g., data for a field change) and before the display of the finalversion of the feed item.

In one implementation, the criteria are received before a feed item iscreated. In another implementation, the criteria are received from thefirst user. In one aspect, the criteria may only used for determiningfeeds to display to the first user. In yet another implementation, thecriteria are received from a first tenant and apply to all of the usersof the first tenant. Also, in an implementation where a plurality ofcriteria are specified, the criteria may be satisfied for a feed item ifone criterion is satisfied.

Some implementations can provide mechanisms to search for feed items ofinterest. For example, the feed items can be searched by keyword, e.g.,as entered by a user. As another example, a tab (or other selectiondevice) can show feed items about or from a particular user. In oneimplementation, only messages (or even just comments) from a particularuser can be selected. Besides searching for feed items that matchcriteria, one also could search for a particular feed item.

XII. Identifying Topical Influence in an Online Social Network

FIG. 15 shows a flowchart of an example of a method 1500 for identifyinga topical influence in an online social network, performed in accordancewith some implementations. Any of the servers or computing devicesdescribed herein may be configured to implement all or parts of method1500. For example, an app server 288 in the on-demand database serviceenvironment 200 of FIGS. 2A and 2B may implement all or parts of method1500.

At block 1502, an entity associated with a feed item is identified. Insome implementations, the identified entity may be a user, a group, arecord, a custom object or an organization of an online social network.In some implementations, one or more servers configured to performmethod 1500 may identify the entity associated with the feed item inresponse to receiving an indication of an event, such as the receipt ofuser input data. For example, a request to publish a feed item may bereceived by one or more servers from a user's device. In this example,in response to the request, a database query may be performed using anidentifier such as a keyword, a tag, or a name of a sender, recipient,or other user mentioned in the feed item. The query may return a name orlist of name of users associated with the feed item. In another example,the entity associated with the feed item may be identified by querying afeed table that refers to entities, fields of entities, andcorresponding feed items, such as the feed tables described above withreference to FIGS. 9A and 9B.

The entity may be identified based on the content or metadata of thefeed item. For example, when Jon Pappas is the author of a post, therequest to publish the post may include metadata that identifies Jon. Inanother example, one or more servers may extrapolate the identificationof the entity associated with the feed item. For instance, the feed itemmay have been received from a computing device at an internet protocol(IP) address identifying a specific entity.

In some implementations, an entity may be identified independent of anyassociation with a feed item. An entity may be identified in response toreceiving an indication of other types of events, such as a request fora user profile feed, a group profile feed, an account profile feed, atopic profile feed or a feed for some other social networking construct.In other instances, an entity may be identified in response to a requestto search for an entity or entities. For example, FIG. 19 shows anexample of a search page 1900 to search for an entity or entities in theform of a graphical user interface (GUI) as displayed on a displaydevice, according to some implementations. In FIG. 19, a user, JennyBennett, can select to search for people 1902 who have a name thatbegins with the letter “W” in field 1904. When Jenny selects the “Go”button 1906, a request to search for users who have names that beginwith “W” is communicated to one or more computing devices performingmethod 1500, for instance, as a signal over network 14 in FIGS. 1A and1B. A database query for users based on the search request is performed.

Although FIG. 19 illustrates searching for users based on the firstletter of their names, the search, in other instances, may be based on auser's role in an organization, status, geographical location, birthdate, hobbies, and/or other user profile information. For example, inFIG. 20, a user selects to search for any users, groups, organizations,or other entities that are identified as influencers 2002 on the topicAcme 2004. In this example, when the user selects the “Go” button 2006,a request to search for entities that are influencers on the topic Acmeis communicated to one or more computing devices as discussed withrespect to button 1906 of FIG. 19. Topical influencers may be identifiedby performing an algorithm as described below at block 1506 and in FIGS.16-17, by way of example. The result of a database query and/or of thealgorithm is displayed as a list of entities influential on Acme 2008 inFIG. 20. Here, the list identifies Whitney Humboldt, William Chen, LeeChidester, Dania Swarez and Leena Lee as influencers on the Acme topic.

Returning to FIG. 15, at block 1504, a topic associated with the entityor with the feed item is identified. In some implementations, theidentified topic may be the name of a user, a group, an account, arecord, or some category of information. The category of information mayindicate subject matter related to a product or a service, technology,software, music, movies, books, travel, or any other subject matter.

In some implementations, one or more servers configured to performmethod 1500 may identify a topic associated with the feed item using thecontent of the feed item. For example, a designated character, word,phrase, symbol, expression (e.g., an emoticon), command, @mention, userID and/or hash tag can be identified in the feed item. The designatedinformation may be selected by a user or may be system-generated. Inanother example, a topic may be expressly identified in association witha feed item. For instance, FIG. 21 shows an example of a profile page2100 in the form of a GUI as displayed on a display device, according tosome implementations. FIG. 21 further depicts a post 2102 associatedwith a list of topics 2104. Here, the list 2104 identifies Acme, fiscalyear, and Solar Panel Design as topics associated with post 2102.

In some implementations, a topic may be identified based on a URLaddress, a hyperlink, a language, a header, a document, an image file, avideo file, and/or an audio file associated with a feed item or anentity. For example, in FIG. 21, one or more servers described hereinmay identify the topic as solar panel design based on the presentationdocument 2106 attached to post 2102. In this example, the topic may bebased on the title of the presentation 2106.

In some implementations, the topic may be identified based on thecontent of a conversation thread including a post and a string ofcomments in an information feed of an online social network. The systemsdescribed herein may determine the topics based on the frequency oroccurrence of keywords, phrases, symbols, etc. within a conversationthread.

In some implementations, a topic associated with the entity identifiedin block 1502 may be determined based on the profile information of theentity. For instance, a topic associated with the entity may be based ontopics of interest provided on the entity's profile page. For example,in FIG. 21, William Chen's profile page 2100 displays a list of topics2108 that are of interest to him. Here, William is associated with thetopics: solar panel design, natural lighting, sustainability and apple.In some instances, a topic associated with an entity may be based onexpertise or skills information listed in an entity's profile page. Forexample, Jake Tapia, a clinical trial specialist, may have a userprofile listing skills and expertise information such as biotechnology,clinical trials, FDA audits and contract management. Each skill would beidentified as a topic associated with Jake Tapia.

In other instances, a topic may be identified based on an entity's roleor title in an organization. For example, with reference to FIG. 21,William is a Solar Architect 2110, and topics associated with that rolemay be solar panel design, conservation, Bechtel SustainabilityCommunity, bio-fuel and/or natural lighting. In some other instances, atopic associated with an entity may be based on preference information,status information, and/or group membership information of an entity. Insome implementations, a topic associated with the entity or with thefeed item may be identified based on a combination of theabove-described information.

In some implementations, a topic may be identified independent of anassociation with an entity. For instance, a topic may be identified inresponse to a request for a specific topic. For example, in FIG. 22, auser selects to search for a topic 2202 identified as Acme in field2204. In this example, when the user selects a “Go” button 2206, arequest to search for data containing or associated with the Acme topicis communicated to one or more computing devices, which perform asearch. The result of the search query is displayed on a display device.In FIG. 22, the search result 2208 identifies four topics that match thesearch query: Acme 2212, Acme Marketing 2214, Acme Bread Co. 2216, andAcme Avils 2218. In this example, users are identified in response tothe identification of topics as top influencers 2210 and displayed alongwith each identified topic.

Returning to FIG. 15, at block 1506, it is determined that the entity isa topical influencer of the identified topic. In some implementations,an entity is determined to be a topical influencer of the identifiedtopic based on one or more factors. As described in further detailbelow, the one or more factors indicate the extent of dissemination ofinformation contributed by the entity to other entities in the onlinesocial network. The one or more factors can be selected by a user, canbe system-generated or selected using any of the various availablesocial network data stored and maintained in the social networkingsystem in which method 1500 is practiced.

Examples of factors used to determine a topical influencer may includeone or more of: the number of times the entity includes keywordsassociated with the topic in his information updates or other feeditems, the number of times the entity has accessed or interacted with atopic profile page, the number of times the entity has been recognizedas an expert or an authority regarding the topic by one or more users ofthe online social network, the number of times the entity is @mentionedin messages submitted by one or more users of the online social network,and other factors.

In FIG. 15, at block 1508, data is sent to a display device to displayone or more components indicating that the entity is the topicalinfluencer. In some implementations, the data is based in part on thetopics, entities and topical influencers determined in blocks 1502-1506.For instance, one or more servers as described with reference to FIGS.2A and 2B may execute a host application that generates components, suchas text, labels, icons, visual indicators and user interface components,to display at a display device. For example, in FIG. 19, a list ofpeople 1908 can be generated. Each identified person 1910 and 1912includes information about the person's role 1914 and 1916 in anorganization, one or more topics he/she has influence over 1918 and1920, the person's last status update 1922 and 1924, and a “follow”button 1926 and 1928 to enable other entities to follow one or morepersons displayed in the list 1908.

In another example, in FIG. 20, the data for one or more components mayinclude operations to generate a list of users 2008 who are influentialon the Acme topic. In FIG. 20, the list includes images 2010 of theusers, their names 2012, and a visual indicator 2014 that indicates alevel of influence that the user has on the topic Acme. Further, in FIG.20, the users are ranked and displayed in the list 2008 according totheir level of influence. By displaying users in order of their level ofinfluence, it may encourage users to further contribute to the topicAcme to increase their level of influence. In other implementations, theusers may be listed according to some other criteria, such as inalphabetical order, according to a user's role in an organizationalhierarchy, or some other order.

In another example, in FIG. 22, the one or more components are used todisplay a list of topics 2208 related to the topic Acme. Each topic2212-2218 includes a description 2220-2226 and an image and name of oneor more top influencers 2228-2234 associated with each topic.

In some implementations, in block 1508, the data sent to a displaydevice may also include one or more components to display other types ofinformation related to a topic, a user, a group, an account, anopportunity, or some other social networking construct. For instance, auser may request to view a topic profile page for the topic, and one ormore servers may send data to display a topic profile page on the user'sdevice. For example, in FIG. 23, the data includes operations togenerate a description 2302 about the Acme topic, a topic image 2304,and a list of alternative names of the topic 2306. Here, alternativenames of the Acme topic are AcmeCorp, AME and #Acme. As such, a usercould use these alternative names to search for the Acme topic andarrive at page 2300, or a user could use these alternative names tocontribute to the Acme topic.

In FIG. 23, the data sent to the display device may also includecomponents to generate an information feed 2308 that includes feed itemsrelated to the Acme topic as well as allows users to post and contributeto the topic. Here, the feed 2308 includes posts from Jules Croston 2310and Belinda Hume 2312. Each post 2310 and 2312 includes topicsidentified in fields 2314 and 2316 related to the post. For instance,topics related to Jules Croston's post 2310 are Acme, GigPel 2012 andSan Jose, and topics related to post 2312 include Acme and CFO. As theexample illustrates, a feed item and/or an entity may be associated withmore than one topic.

Further, in FIG. 23, the data sent to the display device may alsoinclude components to display a graphical button 2318 to allow a user tobecome a follower of the Acme topic and components that includerecommendations 2320 of other users, topics, or groups to follow oractions that a user could perform. Here, the recommendations include asuggestion 2322 that a user add topics to his profile page. Therecommendation further suggests that the user should follow socialmarketing group 2324 based on the topics he currently follows, and thathe should follow Dreamforce 2011 in region 2326.

The Acme topic page 2300 further includes components in the form of alist 2328 of users that are influential over Acme. The list 2328includes images of the users 2330, their names 2332, and a visualindicator 2334 that indicates a level of influence that the user has onthe topic Acme. By displaying the list 2328 in the topic profile page2300, a user can easily identify and connect with a topic influencer toexchange ideas, questions or any other type of information. Forinstance, a user could click on Whitney's image 2330 and be redirectedto Whitney's profile page, and the user can either post a question onher wall or send her a private message to ask further questions aboutAcme. In FIG. 23, the data may further include components to displayimages of followers 2336 of the Acme topic.

In another example, FIG. 24 shows a topic catalogue page 2400 in theform of a GUI as displayed on a display device, according to someimplementations. In FIG. 24, the topic catalogue page includesinformation about the topic Enterprise 2.0 and a list of alternativenames 2404 of the topic. It is common for users to post and generatecontent with different names or labels for the same topic. Here, theEnterprise 2.0 topic has alternative references E2dot0 and #Enterprise2.The page 2400 further includes a list of top influencers 2406 on theEnterprise 2.0 topic.

FIG. 24 further includes a list of sub-topics, Acme 2408 and Branding2410, related to the Enterprise 2.0 topic. Each topic 2408 and 2410includes a respective visual graph 2412 and 2414 of the popularity ofthe subtopic. The popularity may be calculated and measured based onvarious metrics, such as the number of entities following each subtopic,the number of times different entities interact with content related toeach subtopic, the amount of content created and disseminated about thesubtopic, the number of people interested in the subtopic, and may bebased on various other metrics.

FIG. 24 additionally includes a list of recently used topics 2416 which,in some implementations, may be a list of recent topics that weresearched and viewed by a user. The catalogue page 2400 further includesrecommendation 2418 that a user can follow to perform some suggestedactions.

Returning to FIG. 15, in another example of block 1508, the data mayinclude information about the entity's contributions in an online socialnetwork as well as the breadth of dissemination of the entity'scontributions. For instance, in FIG. 21, William Chen's influence isitemized based on a number of posts and comments 2112 contributed byWilliam, and based on a number of comments 2114 and likes 2116 receivedin response to William's contributions. In other instances, one or morecomponents may provide a graphical indicator of an entity's influence.FIG. 25 shows an example of a user profile page 2500 in the form of aGUI as displayed on a display device, according to some implementations.FIG. 25 shows the profile page 2500 of a user, Jon Pappas. Similar toFIG. 21, Jon's profile includes information of his influence byproviding an itemized list of the number of comments and postscontributed by Jon, as well as comment and likes received in response tohis contributions, in region 2502. Further, Jon's profile includes agraphical bar 2504 that indicates his level of influence. The graphicalbar 2504 divides Jon's influence into different levels, such asobserver, active influencer and top influencer. Here, Jon is indicatedby a dot 2506 as a top influencer in the online social network.

In FIG. 15, in some implementations, the data provided to the displaydevice is transmitted from a server to a user system 12 of FIGS. 1A and1B. In this example, the display device is one component of the usersystem 12, which includes a processor configured to execute a webbrowser program to output a graphical presentation, for instance, in aGUI. In other examples, the data provided to the display device at block1508 is generated locally at user system 12. One or more of the blocks1502-1508 as described above can be performed at user system 12 as analternative to being performed at one or more servers in an onlinesocial network. The same is true for the other examples of methodsdescribed below.

FIG. 16 shows a flowchart of an example of a method 1600 for identifyinga topical influence in an online social network, performed in accordancewith some implementations. At block 1602, an entity associated with afeed item is identified, as generally described above at block 1502 ofFIG. 15. At block 1604, a topic associated with the entity or with thefeed item is identified, as generally described above at block 1504 ofFIG. 15.

At block 1606, it is determined whether the entity is a predeterminedtopical influencer of the identified topic, for instance, based on aprevious determination and calculation that the entity madecontributions to the identified topic. In some implementations, one ormore computing devices described herein may perform a database query todetermine whether the entity is a topical influencer. For example, adatabase query may be performed based on an entity identifier and topicidentifier. The query may return an indication of whether the entity andtopic are associated with each other in the database table.

If it is determined that the entity is a predetermined topicalinfluencer, then method 1600 proceeds to block 1612. If it is determinedthat the entity is not a predetermined topical influencer, then method1600 proceeds to block 1608.

At block 1608, it is determined whether the entity is a topicalinfluencer of the identified topic based on one or more factors. The oneor more factors are used as indicators of an entity's contributions ofcontent to a topic and the breadth of dissemination of the entity'scontributions to other entities in an online social network.Additionally, the one or more factors indicate the impact of an entity'scontributions, such as the amount of contributions made by otherentities to the topic in response to the entity's contributions.

In some implementations, the one or more factors may include adetermination of whether a user has been recognized as an expert or anauthority regarding the topic by one or more other users of the onlinesocial network. For example, FIG. 26 shows an example of a peerendorsement pop-up window 2602 to allow a user to endorse another useras a topical influencer. In FIG. 26, the pop-up window 2602 allows auser to endorse William Chen on a topic as an influencer. The pop-upwindow 2602 includes a pre-determined list of topics 2604 and 2608 fromwhich a user can select to endorse William. The list may include topicsassociated with William. In some instances, the list of topics may bedetermined as described above with respect to blocks 1504 and 1604 ofFIGS. 15 and 16, respectively. In some instances, a user can select toadd a new topic 2610 and endorse William for that topic.

When the user selects the “OK” button 2612, William may be identified asa topical influencer for each specified topic in window 2602. Here,William is endorsed and identified as an influencer over the topics:Security, Networks, Bicycling and Apple. William's information may bestored in a database table that identifies topics and correspondingtopical influencers for each topic. Alternatively, the endorsement foreach topic may be stored along with William's profile information.

William may be identified as a topical influencer for one or more topicsafter he receives a designated amount of endorsement for a topic. Forexample, for the topic Security, William becomes a topical influencerafter he receives ten endorsements; however, he becomes a topicalinfluencer on Bicycling after receiving five endorsements.

In some implementations, at block 1608, the one or more factors mayinclude: the number of times the entity includes keywords associatedwith the topic in its information updates or other feed items, thenumber of times the entity has accessed or interacted with a topicprofile page, and other factors. In some implementations, if it isdetermined that the entity is not a topical influencer at block 1608,method 1600 ends. Otherwise, method 1600 proceeds to block 1610.

At block 1610, the entity associated with the identified topic isidentified as a topical influencer on one or more storage mediums. Forexample, the entity may be identified in a database table that includesthe entity's identification with corresponding topics that the entityhas topical influence over. At block 1612, data is sent to a displaydevice to display one or more components indicating that the entity isthe topical influencer, as generally described above with respect toblock 1508 of FIG. 15.

FIGS. 17A and 17B show a flowchart of an example of a method 1700 fordetermining whether an entity is a topical influencer of an identifiedtopic based on one or more factors, performed in accordance with someimplementations.

At block 1702, one or more factors are used to determine whether anentity is a topical influencer of an identified topic. The one or morefactors are used as indicators of an entity's contributions of contentto a topic and the breadth of dissemination of the entity'scontributions to other entities in an online social network. Any one ormore factors, including combinations of selected factors in block 1702can be applied to determine whether an entity is a topical influencer ofan identified topic.

In some implementations, some of the factors are based on how anentity's contribution to a topic impacts other online social networkusers, groups, organizations, and other entities. For instance, some ofthe factors measure whether an entity's post on a topic causes otherentities to react or perform an action. For example, a user, Dr. SanjayGupta, posts a feed item about treatment of blood clots in the humanbody. In this example, the number of preference indications, such as“likes,” “+1”, emoticons (

,

), and comments received in response to Dr. Sanjay Gupta's post may beused as factors to determine Gupta's influence on blood clots.Additionally, the number of times Dr. Sanjay Gupta's post is shared inthe online social network, such as re-tweets in Twitter®, re-shares inGoogle+®, shares in Facebook®, etc. add to Dr. Sanjay Gupta's influencefactor as well as indicate Dr. Sanjay Gupta's reach in engaging otherusers with his content.

In some implementations, some of the factors are based on the influenceof the topic in an online social network. For example, a number of timesa topic is discussed by other users in an online social network, or anumber of users discussing blood clots, can be a factor. Additionally,the factors could include the number of followers of a topic profilepage. In this example, if a topic has a high number of followers, thenthe topic may be considered influential because a lot of users, groups,and other entities are interested in the topic.

In some implementations, some of the factors relate to an entitycontributing information to a topic. For instance, the number of times atopic is included in a message submitted by a user, the number of timesthe user accesses a topic feed, or the number of times comments andposts include content about a topic may be a factor to determine auser's topical influence. In some instances, the factors may alsoinclude the number of times the entity has been recognized as an expertor authority regarding the topic. For example, users, groups andorganizations may endorse Dr. Sanjay Gupta as an expert on blood clotsby using a similar form as depicted in FIG. 26. In some other instances,a number of times user-submitted messages that include contentidentifying an entity and a topic may be used. In yet some otherinstances, the factors may include: a number of times an entity is@mentioned in messages submitted by other users. In some instances,topical influence may be based on an association of an entity profilepage with the topic. For example, a user may indicate some topics thatare of interest and topics that he is following in his user profileinformation. This information can be used as a factor in determiningtopical influence.

At block 1704, weight information is applied to one or more factors. Insome implementations, numerical weights can be applied to any one ormore of the various factors based on the importance of the factor. Forexample, “likes” for a post may be weighted less than a comment to apost because there is more effort required in submitting a comment. Insome instances, the weight may depend on how an entity's contribution toa topic engages other entities in an online social network. For example,if a feed item submitted by a user is shared over one hundred times inan online social network, this reaction may increase the user's topicalinfluence value. In contrast, if a user posts one hundred feed itemsresulting in only 10 shares of a feed item, this reaction may beweighted less. In another example, if a user receives likes, comments,and shares of his post from one hundred different people instead of onehundred messages from one person, then this may be weighted more heavilyin calculating an entity's level of influence on a topic.

At block 1706, a value that represents the entity's level of influenceon the identified topic is calculated based on the weight informationthat was applied in block 1704. In some implementations, the weightedvalues of each factor may be summed to calculate the entity's level ofinfluence. In some implementations, a custom algorithm may be executedto calculate the entity's level of influence. For example, the algorithmmay calculate the number of messages (posts, comments, likes, privatemessages, shares) generated by a user, Jackie Chang. Then, a summationof user reactions to Jackie's messages is calculated. The user reactionsinclude posts, comments, likes and shares generated by other users inresponse to Jackie's messages. In this example, the summation iscalculated as follows: (2×number of comments)+(3×number ofposts)+(number of likes)+(5×shares). Then, Jackie's level of topicalinfluence is the ratio of the number of messages generated by Jackie tothe summation of user reactions. The same algorithm can be applied tocalculate other entities' respective levels of influence.

At 1708, it is determined whether the calculated value meets or exceedsa threshold level that indicates that the entity is a topicalinfluencer. In some implementations, the threshold value may designatedifferent topical influence ranges. For example, a value calculated atblock 1706 that falls within the 0-30 range may be identified as anobserver. If the value is within 31-69, then the entity is an activeinfluencer. Otherwise, the entity is a top influencer. In this example,an entity is identified as an observer if the entity occasionally postsmessages and sporadically comments on, shares or “likes” messages abouta topic. In contrast, an active influencer or a top influencer is anentity that actively contributes information and content about a topicby creating messages (e.g., comments, posts) that causes other users toreact and perform actions (“like”, comment, share, @mention the topicalinfluencer) in response those messages.

In some implementations, at block 1708, if it is determined that theentity is not a topical influencer, method 1700 ends. Alternatively, ifit is determined that the entity is a topical influencer, appropriatedata is stored in one or more storage mediums. For example, the topicalinfluence value of block 1706 may be stored in a database table inconnection with a user ID, and the topical influence value may beperiodically updated as new user interactions with the identified topicare detected. This way, a running topical influence value may bemaintained for a user, and when the value meets or exceeds the thresholdlevel, the user may be identified as a topical influencer. In someimplementations, the entity identified in the database table may be oneof many entities that are topical influencers on a corresponding topic.

In some implementations, after identifying the entity as a topicalinfluencer at block 1710, data is sent to a display device to displayone or more components indicating that the entity is the topicalinfluencer and indicating the level of influence. For example, data maybe sent to display a list of topical influencers as depicted in FIGS.20, 23 and 25.

In FIG. 17, various GUIs can be constructed and made available to usersto personalize and customize the factors for determining whether anentity is a topical influencer. For example, a system administrator orother user can personally select the individual factor or factors toapply, define and determine the process to calculate a topical influencevalue. In one example, a pre-defined set of factors exists, and a userselects one or more of the pre-defined set. In other examples, a userinputs and customizes the user's own factors. In one implementation, auser interface provides graphical slide bars which a user can select,e.g., by clicking with the user's mouse, and drag to set weights to beapplied to the selected factor. A list of the factors can be presentedin a GUI with a check box beside each factor for the user to select. Theuser can then select whether the user wants to apply weights and, if so,a pane with the slide bar mentioned above appears. In some instances, auser has a custom box in which the user defines his or her customizedfactors.

FIG. 18 shows a flowchart of an example of a method 1800 for identifyinga topical influence in an online social network, performed in accordancewith some implementations. FIG. 18 is described with references to FIGS.27A, 27B and 28. In some implementations, blocks 1802-1808 are performedin a substantially similar manner as described above with respect toblocks 1502-1508 of FIG. 15.

At block 1810, a feed item in an online social network is identified.The feed item may be identified at various times and in various ways.For example, a feed item may be identified when it is created. Forinstance, the creation of a feed item may trigger a process configuredto determine topics associated with the feed item. In another example, afeed item may be identified upon demand. For instance, a user may clickon a feed item displayed in a feed to instruct one or more servers toidentify topics associated with the feed item.

In some implementations, a feed item may be identified when the feeditem includes a key phrase, word, or symbol. For example, FIG. 27A showsan example of a profile page 2700 in the form of a GUI as displayed on adisplay device, according to some implementations. In FIG. 27A, theprofile page 2700 is of a user, Annie Edison, and includes a feed withfeed items 2702-2708. Here, one or more servers may identify feed item2702 in response to the detection of a “?” in the content of that feeditem. In this way, whenever a user poses a question, the system mayautomatically identify topical influencers who may have an answer to theuser's question. In another example, FIG. 28 shows an example of a grouppage 2800 in the form of a GUI as displayed on a display device,according to some implementations. In FIG. 28, Ricky Rick posts a feeditem 2802 notifying the auto-sale group that he recently closed a sale.In this example, one or more servers described herein may be configuredto monitor and identify feed items that include the “#” symbol. When the“#” symbol is detected, the servers may be configured to determine atopic and topical influencers associated with the feed items. In analternative implementation, feed item 2802 may be identified asincluding keywords such as “Closing” or “Sale.”

Returning to FIG. 18, at block 1812, it is determined whether the feeditem includes or identifies one or more topics. For example, in FIG.27A, one or more servers may be configured to analyze the content offeed item 2702, “Does Acme Co. have any competitors in the SanFrancisco/Bay Area on motorcycle insurance?” In this example, the servermay identify that the topics associated with feed item 2702 are Acme,motorcycle insurance and San Francisco. In another example, in FIG. 28,the one or more servers may identify that the topic associated with feeditem 2802 is a VW Sale based on the “#” symbol. In this example, the oneor more servers may be configured to analyze any alphanumeric text thatfollows the “#” symbol.

Returning to FIG. 18, in some implementations, the one or more topicsmay be determined and identified in similar manner as described abovewith reference to blocks 1504, 1604 and 1804 of FIGS. 15, 16 and 18,respectively.

In some implementations, if it is determined that the identified feeditem does not include any topics, method 1800 may end. Alternatively,method 1800 may return to block 1810 and identify another feed item toanalyze for one or more topics. On the other hand, if it is determinedthat the feed item includes one or more topics, method 1800 proceeds toblock 1814.

At block 1814, one or more topical influencers associated with theidentified one or more topics are identified. In some implementations,one or more servers may be configured to perform processes, such asmethods 1500, 1600 and 1700, to identify and determine topicalinfluencers of a topic.

At block 1816, data is sent to a display device to display one or morecomponents indicating one or more topical influencers associated withthe identified topics. In some implementations, the data may include alist of topical influencers determined at block 1814. The list may bebased on the result of a database query. For example, FIG. 27B shows anexample of a profile page 2700 in the form of a GUI as displayed on adisplay device, according to some implementations. In FIG. 27B, thepresentation may include components in the form of a pop-up window 2710that includes a list of top influencers for the topics Acme, Motorcycleand San Francisco/Bay Area. By displaying a list of top influencers,Annie may easily connect with a user who may have an answer to herquestion.

In another example, FIG. 2800 includes a pop-up window 2804 indicatingthat Todd Lowe is a top influencer on the sales of VW Passatts. In thisexample, the one or more servers generate a recommendation that RickyRick should call Tina Fey like Todd does in order to increase the saleprice of the VW Passatt.

The specific details of the specific aspects of implementationsdisclosed herein may be combined in any suitable manner withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the disclosed implementations.However, other implementations may be directed to specificimplementations relating to each individual aspect, or specificcombinations of these individual aspects.

While the disclosed examples are often described herein with referenceto an implementation in which an on-demand database service environmentis implemented in a system having an application server providing afront end for an on-demand database service capable of supportingmultiple tenants, the present implementations are not limited tomulti-tenant databases nor deployment on application servers.Implementations may be practiced using other database architectures,i.e., ORACLE®, DB2® by IBM and the like without departing from the scopeof the implementations claimed.

It should be understood that some of the disclosed implementations canbe embodied in the form of control logic using hardware and/or usingcomputer software in a modular or integrated manner. Other ways and/ormethods are possible using hardware and a combination of hardware andsoftware.

Any of the software components or functions described in thisapplication may be implemented as software code to be executed by aprocessor using any suitable computer language such as, for example,Java, C++ or Perl using, for example, conventional or object-orientedtechniques. The software code may be stored as a series of instructionsor commands on a computer-readable medium for storage and/ortransmission, suitable media include random access memory (RAM), a readonly memory (ROM), a magnetic medium such as a hard-drive or a floppydisk, or an optical medium such as a compact disk (CD) or DVD (digitalversatile disk), flash memory, and the like. The computer-readablemedium may be any combination of such storage or transmission devices.Computer-readable media encoded with the software/program code may bepackaged with a compatible device or provided separately from otherdevices (e.g., via Internet download). Any such computer-readable mediummay reside on or within a single computing device or an entire computersystem, and may be among other computer-readable media within a systemor network. A computer system, or other computing device, may include amonitor, printer, or other suitable display for providing any of theresults mentioned herein to a user.

While various implementations have been described herein, it should beunderstood that they have been presented by way of example only, and notlimitation. Thus, the breadth and scope of the present applicationshould not be limited by any of the implementations described herein,but should be defined only in accordance with the following andlater-submitted claims and their equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for identifying topical influence in asocial networking system implemented using a database system, the methodcomprising: identifying, at a server associated with the databasesystem, a first user associated with a feed item stored in a database ofthe database system, the feed item capable of being provided forinclusion in a feed of the social networking system; identifying a topicassociated with the first user or with the feed item; determining thatthe first user is a topical influencer of the identified topic in thesocial networking system based on one or more factors, the topicalinfluencer being a contributor of information associated with theidentified topic, the one or more factors related to dissemination ofthe contributed information to other entities in the social networkingsystem; generating, responsive to determining that the first user is thetopical influencer, a recommendation of at least one action taken by thefirst user, the at least one action being related to the identifiedtopic and the at least one action being related to at least one customerrelationship management (CRM) record of a CRM system; determining that afurther feed item comprising content authored by a second user of thesocial networking system is related to both the topic and the CRMrecord; and automatically providing, responsive to determining that thefurther feed item comprising the content authored by the second user isrelated to both the topic and the CRM record, the recommendation to adevice of the second user, the recommendation configurable to bedisplayed in association with a visual indicator at a display of thedevice, the visual indicator configurable to indicate that the firstuser is the topical influencer.
 2. The method recited in claim 1,wherein determining that the first user is the topical influencerincludes: identifying the first user as one of a plurality of usersassociated with the identified topic in a database.
 3. The methodrecited in claim 1, wherein the topic is a name of one of: a user, agroup, a CRM object, a record, and a category of information.
 4. Themethod recited in claim 1, wherein identifying the topic associated withthe first user or with the feed item includes: determining that contentof the feed item includes designated information associated with thetopic.
 5. The method recited in claim 4, wherein the designatedinformation includes one or more of: a character, a word, a phrase, anexpression, a command, a user ID, a tag, a symbol, an @mention, a URLaddress, a hyperlink, a language, a header, a document, a type ofdocument, an image file, a video file, an audio file, a type of file,and a timeframe.
 6. The method recited in claim 1, wherein identifyingthe topic associated with the first user or with the feed item includes:identifying the topic as being included in a profile of the first user.7. The method recited in claim 6, wherein the profile of the first userincludes one or more of: preference information, status information,expertise and skills information, topics of interest information, andgroup membership information.
 8. The method recited in claim 1, whereinidentifying the topic associated with the first user or with the feeditem includes: identifying the topic in association with one or more of:a role, a title, a group, a record, a field of a record, a recordupdate, a type of record, a feed, a type of feed, a conversation thread,a feed item, a message, a type of message, and a geographic location. 9.The method recited in claim 1, wherein the factors include one or moreof: a number of preference indications associated with the feed item, anumber of comments associated with the feed item, a number of times thefeed item is shared in the social networking system, a number of timesthe topic is identified in association with other feed items, a numberof times the topic is included in messages submitted by the first user,a number of times the first user is recognized as an expert or anauthority regarding the topic by one or more users of the socialnetworking system, a number of times the first user is @mentioned inmessages submitted by one or more users of the social networking system,a number of user-submitted messages having content identifying the firstuser and the topic, a number of followers of a topic page, a number oftimes the first user has accessed or interacted with a topic feed, anumber of times the first user has accessed or interacted with a dataobject associated with the identified topic, and an association of aprofile page of the first user with the topic.
 10. The method recited inclaim 1, wherein determining that the first user is the topicalinfluencer of the identified topic based on the one or more factorsincludes: applying weight information to the one or more factors;calculating, based on the weight information applied to the one or morefactors, a value representing a level of influence of the first user onthe identified topic; and determining that the calculated value meets orexceeds a threshold level.
 11. The method of claim 1, wherein the socialnetworking system is specific to one of a plurality of organizations.12. The method of claim 1, wherein the first user is one of a pluralityof users being influencers of topics, the users and the topics beingindicated in the recommendation.
 13. A database system for identifyingtopical influence in a social networking system implemented using aserver system, the database system configurable to cause: identifying afirst user associated with a feed item stored in a database of thedatabase system, the feed item capable of being provided for inclusionin a feed of the social networking system; identifying a topicassociated with the first user or with the feed item; determining thatthe first user is a topical influencer of the identified topic in thesocial networking system based on one or more factors, the topicalinfluencer being a contributor of information associated with theidentified topic, the one or more factors related to dissemination ofthe contributed information to other entities in the social networkingsystem; generating, responsive to determining that the first user is thetopical influencer, a recommendation of at least one action taken by thefirst user, the at least one action being related to the identifiedtopic and the at least one action being related to at least one CRMrecord of a CRM system; determining that a further feed item comprisingcontent authored by a second user of the social networking system isrelated to both the topic and the CRM record; and automaticallyproviding, responsive to determining that the further feed itemcomprising the content authored by the second user is related to boththe topic and the CRM record, the recommendation to a device of thesecond user, the recommendation configurable to be displayed inassociation with a visual indicator at a display of the device, thevisual indicator configurable to indicate that the first user is thetopical influencer.
 14. The database system of claim 13, wherein thefactors include one or more of: a number of preference indicationsassociated with the feed item, a number of comments associated with thefeed item, a number of times the feed item is shared in the socialnetworking system, a number of times the topic is identified inassociation with other feed items, a number of times the topic isincluded in messages submitted by the first user, a number of times thefirst user is recognized as an expert or an authority regarding thetopic by one or more users of the social networking system, a number oftimes the first user is @mentioned in messages submitted by one or moreusers of the social networking system, a number of user-submittedmessages having content identifying the first user and the topic, anumber of followers of a topic page, a number of times the first userhas accessed or interacted with a topic feed, a number of times thefirst user has accessed or interacted with a data object associated withthe identified topic, and an association of a profile page of the firstuser with the topic.
 15. A computer program product comprisingcomputer-readable program code capable of being executed by one or moreprocessors when retrieved from a non-transitory computer-readablemedium, the program code comprising instructions configurable to cause:identifying a first user associated with a feed item stored in adatabase of the database system, the feed item capable of being providedfor inclusion in a feed of the social networking system; identifying atopic associated with the first user or with the feed item; determiningthat the first user is a topical influencer of the identified topic inthe social networking system based on one or more factors, the topicalinfluencer being a contributor of information associated with theidentified topic, the one or more factors related to dissemination ofthe contributed information to other entities in the social networkingsystem; generating, responsive to determining that the first user is thetopical influencer, a recommendation of at least one action taken by thefirst user, the at least one action being related to the identifiedtopic and the at least one action being related to at least one CRMrecord of a CRM system; determining that a further feed item comprisingcontent authored by a second user of the social networking system isrelated to both the topic and the CRM record; and automaticallyproviding, responsive to determining that the further feed itemcomprising the content authored by the second user is related to boththe topic and the CRM record, the recommendation to a device of thesecond user, the recommendation configurable to be displayed inassociation with a visual indicator at a display of the device, thevisual indicator configurable to indicate that the first user is thetopical influencer.
 16. The computer program product of claim of 15,wherein the factors include one or more of: a number of preferenceindications associated with the feed item, a number of commentsassociated with the feed item, a number of times the feed item is sharedin the social networking system, a number of times the topic isidentified in association with other feed items, a number of times thetopic is included in messages submitted by the first user, a number oftimes the first user is recognized as an expert or an authorityregarding the topic by one or more users of the social networkingsystem, a number of times the first user is @mentioned in messagessubmitted by one or more users of the social networking system, a numberof user-submitted messages having content identifying the first user andthe topic, a number of followers of a topic page, a number of times thefirst user has accessed or interacted with a topic feed, a number oftimes the first user has accessed or interacted with a data objectassociated with the identified topic, and an association of a profilepage of the first user with the topic.
 17. The computer program productof claim of 15, the instructions further configurable to cause: applyingweight information to the one or more factors; calculating, based on theweight information applied to the one or more factors, a valuerepresenting a level of influence of the first user on the identifiedtopic; and determining that the calculated value meets or exceeds athreshold level.